Haikyuu! Karasuno Girl's Volleyball Club
by spicyfriedtofu
Summary: Looking to get away from her past and reinvent herself, Mina Hashimoto moves to the rural parts of Japan to live with her older sister. While Mina thinks this is the perfect way to get away from who she once was that plan quickly falls apart when she enrolls at Karasuno High. While meeting new and old friends Mina learns that sometimes a change of plan isn't always bad. OC-Centric
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Welcome to my story! I hope you enjoy my first piece of work. I just want to let you know before you get hooked (ha) that I'm not sure if I will regularly update this story but I will try my best to have at least on chapter up every 1 or 2 weeks!_

 _Disclaimer: I do not own any characters other than my ocs!_

* * *

"Mina…Mina, hey Mina wake up you're going to be late for school if you don't get up you know?"

Lifting my head slightly, I managed to shoot a somewhat sleepy glare at my older sister Emi before closing my eyes again and snuggling deeper into my bed.

Letting out a loud and dramatic sigh, I simply listened as my older sister made her way into my tiny room. I followed the sounds of her light footsteps to my window where I could hear the soft rustling of the curtain opening,

"How can you just lie there when it's so beautiful outside?" Emi asked in that annoying motherly tone of her,

"My bed is warm…" I croaked, my voice cracking slightly as it always did in the early mornings.

Drifting back to sleep I couldn't help but continue listening to the sound of Emi's soft footsteps make their way across the room,

"Seriously Emi, if you don't get up now you'll never get to school on time. This isn't America, you can't just wave down a taxi or grab the train- you are going to have to walk to school and last time I checked that's a _long_ walk,"

Cracking my eyes open I squinted at my sister who was now standing at the edge of my bed with her hands on her hips and a small smirk,

"I thought you said I could borrow your bike," Sitting up in my bed I rubbed my eyes harshly with clenched fist,

"I didn't have time this weekend to look for it," Emi simply shrugged.

Feeling my eye twitch I raised an eyebrow at her. No time? What did she mean by that? Anyone with a pair of working eyes and half a functional brain could definitely see that Emi had nothing _but_ time on her hands.

Opening my mouth to respond I quickly decided that I didn't have time to argue with her. Peering over at my clock I realized that she was right, I had already overslept which didn't leave me much time now.

Throwing my comforter off me I instinctively tugged at my oversized tee in an attempt to shake off the cold.

"Finally, now hurry up and get ready, I already finished breakfast and packed your lunch. You don't want to be late for the first day of school do you?" Without even waiting for one off my sassy, smart-ass responses Emi twirled out of my room and disappeared down the hall.

 _Where does she get that energy from?_ I thought to myself as I made my way to the bathroom. Getting undressed I hopped into the small shower.

Slowly working a dollop of strawberry scented shampoo into my hair I tried to fight off my growing anxiety as the fact that today was indeed the first day of school- for me anyway.

Finishing off my shower I hopped out and quickly brushed my teeth before going back into my room to put on my uniform.

Entering my room I noticed that whereas before I had left my bed all messy it was now straightened up and had my uniform lain out neatly in the middle. Making my way to my bed I study my uniform for a moment.

Thankfully I happy to see that the uniform wasn't awkward or ugly, in fact I was pleased to see that it was actually kind of simple but cute. The uniform simply consisted of a plain, pleated black skirt that looked like it was suppose to the knees but since I was more on the taller side it would most likely fall a little higher above mid-thigh length. Looking over at my top I noticed that my sister had laid out of couple of options for me. On the right side of the skirt my sister had laid out a simple white crew neck tee-shirt with a red tie and a cream colored sleeveless vest while on the left side of the skirt there was long sleeve button down shirt paired with a navy blue blazer and red, floppy bow tie.

After staring at the two options for a minute I finally decided that I wanted to wear the tee shirt combination mainly because I didn't want to come off as too preppy for the first day of school but rather chic and relaxed.

After pulling on my clothes and hastily drying my hair I quickly grabbed my backpack and a pair of knee high navy blue socks before heading to the kitchen.

"Ah, don't you look nice," Emi hummed happily as she peered up from her magazine with a cup of coffee in hand.

Grunting in reply I plopped down across the table from her and started to pull on my socks.

"Hmm, that's it?" Emi said with a skeptical look on her face as she placed a bowl of oatmeal in front of me,

Looking down at my outfit I looked back up at her with a small frown, "should I change into the blazer instead?"

Shaking her head, Emi threw her hands to her hips again and jerked her head upwards in my direction, "I meant are you not planning on putting any makeup on or doing something with your hair?"

Makeup? Hair? Wasn't she the one who told me hurry up or else I'd be late?

Digging my spoon into my oatmeal I shrugged, "I don't have time, besides I'm pretty sure the school prohibits girls to wear makeup,"

Scoffing in disgust my sister crossed her arms, "you can _never_ not have time for makeup!" pointing dramatically at the magazine she had been reading she quickly grabbed it and thrusted it in my face, "it says right hear that no matter what you should always make time for a little bit of makeup, besides if you do it really natural the school will never notice!"

Before I could even point out that unlike her I didn't need a bunch of magazine articles to dictate my life, Emi dashed out of the kitchen and reappeared just as quickly with one of her overstuffed makeup bags.

"Now let your big sister take care of this!"

Ignoring the fact that I had a mouthful of oatmeal, Emi gripped my face tightly in her iron like grip and twisted my face about,

"Ah, your skin is so nice and clear you don't even need any tinted moisturizer!"

Slapping her hand away I shrunk back in my chair, "can't you let me eat in peace?"

"Nope," she responded popping the 'p' as she dug into in makeup her bag, "now face me and look up,"

Doing as she instructed, Emi gripped my face softly this time and began applying a chestnut brown eye pencil across my upper lid and a bit on my lower lid.

Giving up entirely on breakfast for now I allowed Emi to dust on a barely noticeable layer of blush on my cheeks and apply an almost sheer pink lip tint on my lips,

"Perfect!" Emi exclaimed as she leaned back to observe her work "you're so lucky your eyebrows are perfectly arched and full,"

Chuckling lightly at her pouted face I stuck out my tongue, "does this mean I'm done now?"

"You wish your hair is still a mess!"

Bringing my hands up to my head I had to admit she was probably right.

Just a week ago after in arriving here I decided that I needed a change. Unfortunately after realizing that there was no hairdresser located in the isolated rural area I hadn't heeded my sister's warnings and decided that I could indeed cut my own hair. At first I had assumed cutting my own hair would be a cinch, I mean I was going for a just a minor trim but somehow after each cut I delivered to my hair I found that my chest length hair was becoming more and more drastically short and uneven. Thankfully after tearfully approaching my sister with scissors in hand, Emi had effortlessly saved what little was left and transformed my uneven hair disaster into a short and stylish chin length bob.

"Couldn't you have at least put some moisturizer in your hair before drying it?" Emi scolded,

"Heh," I started sheepishly "I was kind of in a rush,"

Clucking her tongue at me Emi magically pulled out wide tooth comb and some hair cream from her makeup bag and got to work on my hair.

As I finished up my breakfast Emi tucked my side bangs behind my right ear and placed a bright red plastic hair band in my hair which ensured that my bangs wouldn't randomly sweep forward whenever I tilted my head down. "There, now you look pretty as me!" Emi squealed happily,

Rolling my eyes and smiling at her, I stood up and straightened out my uniform "geez thanks, I probably looked a lot worse before,"

"You did," she agreed "but now you look awesome so don't worry about your looks. All you have to do is make sure you don't embarrass yourself!"

Gulping nervously I tried to fight off the growing anxiety. Not only was it my first day of school but it was my first day off school in a completely different country for me and of all the times to join a new school it happened to be smack dab in the middle of the spring semester. Not only would I be the new kid but I'd stick out like a sore thumb!

Throwing my face into my palms I let out a groan, "I feel sick,"

"Ah! Stop messing up my heard work!" Emi wailed while swatting the top of my head,

"I'm pretty sure you hitting me like that is definitely not helping me either,"

Pouting at my response, Emi suddenly offered a wide grin and threw her hands on my shoulders "look Mina, you are going to be fine. You are smart and funny so making friends is not going to be a problem…but if you keep frowning at me like that then you will definitely end up with some major wrinkles which will definitely be a problem,"

Punching her in the arm I ignored Emi's yelp and pulled her into a hug, "thanks…thanks for everything,"

"Heh, hey no needs to thank me this is what big sisters are for. Now get off me you are messing up your makeup,"

Pulling away we grinned at each other. Saying my goodbyes Emi handed me my bento lunch box that she had carefully wrapped with a hot pink cloth and my backpack.

Heading to the door I assured my sister for the fiftieth time that I knew how to get to school and that she didn't have to come with me. Slipping on my sneakers I pulled her into one last hug and stepped out of the house.

Even though it was only middle of May and the weather forecast had claimed that it would be a rather hot day it was still pretty chilly outside, then it again it was only about six in the morning so it would probably warm up later.

Starting my hour long trek in the direction of the Karasuno High I couldn't help but get lost in my own thoughts.

Would anyone want to even talk to me? Would I stick out too much? Or worse what if someone recognized me?!

Before I could allow myself to even address any of my worrisome thoughts a loud wail caught my attention and before I could react I was suddenly knocked onto my stomach and something heavy landed on my back.

"Ah!" A loud yet shrill voice yelled from on top of me,

Clutching my head in my hand I craned my neck so I could give a piece of my mind to whoever was using me as personal body pillow. From this angle all I could really see was a mop of messy and spiky bright orange hair.

"Hey-" I started with a threatening edge,

Tensing up immediately, the person suddenly whipped their head towards me to reveal a pair of wide brown eyes that looked like they were tearing up,

"ImsosorryIdidntseeyouthereImeanIdidbutIwasntfocusingandImsosorry-" suddenly stopping in the middle of the rant he simply stared at me with even wider eyes and his mouth hanging open slightly,

For a moment all we did was stare at each other. Suddenly feeling self conscious I averted my eyes from him and took small deep breath.

I hated being stared at. I knew there was no way around it though, I mean it wasn't everyday that people around here would run into a black girl- especially out in the rural parts of Japan like this.

"I-I am s-sorry," the boy suddenly exclaimed in a somewhat accented English,

Peering up again at him I gave him a small smiled and responded in Japanese, "its okay but can you please get off me?"

Blushing furiously the boy suddenly threw himself off me so that he was sitting about two to three meters away from me in a crouched position, "sorry!" he exclaimed again while bowing his head deeply.

Scratching the back of my head I pulled myself up so I would be sitting while facing him, "it's okay, but you should be more careful next time,"

"Y-your Japanese is good…" the boy said trailing off as he continued to stare at me with a look of awe and confusion,

"Eh yes," I mumbled becoming even more self conscious "my dad is Japanese so I'm half Japanese."

"Oh…" the boy mumbled still with a look of wonder painted on his face.

Not knowing what else to see I casted a side long glance to my side. Over to the right of us I saw that his bike which had nearly ran me over with was now lying somewhat dejectedly on the edge of a rice patty field,

Pointing to his bike I looked over at him, "Um I think you should get your bike before it falls in,"

Snapping out of his daze the boy looked over and suddenly bolted up with a cry and immediately dashed over to his bike.

 _So fast…_ I thought to myself as I stared at him with surprise. Almost in a blink of an eye he had somehow managed to cross a good amount of distance and reach his bike.

Still staring in surprise it took me a few seconds to register his grunts of frustration as he tried to heave his bike up the steep slope.

Forgetting about my bag I raced over to him and down the slope. Grabbing the front of his bike I helped him pull his bike back up to the sandy path.

"Thank you," the boy exclaimed rather loudly while bowing deeply,

"Eh, no problem," I replied sheepishly.

I could tell he was feeling awkward, he wanted to stare at me was seemed like he couldn't bring himself to. But then, for whatever reason he suddenly focused his eyes on me and stared…and stared…and stared…

"Eh-"

"Your eyes are so bright, it's like the color of the sea…sea foam green," he mumbled almost like he was hypnotize.

Blushing slightly at his comment I shielded my eyes and turned my head away from him, "uh thank you…I think," I mumbled the last part to myself.

"I'm Hinata Shoyo!"

Looking in his direction with a hand still shielding my eyes I nodded at him, "Nice to meet you, I'm Mina Hashimoto."

"What are you doing out here?" Hinata asked loudly and rather cheerfully- almost has if he hadn't just nearly killed me moments before,

Peering at him curiously I noticed that he wasn't staring at me with a dumbstruck look on his face anymore, instead he now how a wide grin plastered on his face almost as if he was merely chatting to a good friend.

"Um, I was heading to school?"

"School?" he echoed curiously,

"Yes, I'm transferring to Karasuno High-"

"Ah! I go to that school too!" Hinata exclaimed,

Squinting at him slightly I couldn't help but note that he was way too loud and energetic.

"Were you actually planning on walking there?" Hinata asked,

"Eh, yes why?"

"Well it's just such a long walk especially through the mountains,"

"Heh, I was supposed to borrow my older sister's bike but she was too lazy to look for it so I figured one day of walking wouldn't kill me." _But if she doesn't find that bike soon it will definitely kill me…_

"I could give you a lift if you want," he said happily,

Studying him I couldn't help but shoot him a skeptical look. I didn't want to say it but he looked far too scrawny and small to even be going to be a high school student let alone carry me on his bike.

"I might be short and small but I can definitely carry you on my bike!" he said confidently almost as if he had read my mind "plus this would be good training for me!"

"Eh, are you saying I'm fat?" I asked in a mock dark tone,

Almost instantly Hinata paled and took a few steps back as if he was prepared to cower behind someone.

"Eh, I'm joking! I'm sorry!" I said quickly,

"Oh, I knew that," he laughed straightening up immediately. Pulling his bike alongside him he gestured for me to hop on and sit down in the basket that was placed in front of his bike.

Pouting slightly I hesitantly hopped onto his bike fully expecting us to topple over due to my height and weight. However, much to my surprise Hinata managed to support my added weight and pushed off with a small huff.

"Um, are you sure I'm not too heavy?" I asked when I noticed that he was starting to turn red in the face,

"No, no," Hinata managed to gasp as he continued pedaling "you are certainly not as heavy as I thought you'd be."

As Hinata continued pedaling and the wind ruffled my hair I had to admit that this was nice.

"Hey, Mina-san you said you were transferring to Karasuno?"

"Mhm,"

"Um, do you mind if I ask you where you are from?"

Casting a look over my shoulder I decided that it would be okay to tell him- after all it didn't look like he had a clue who I was. "I'm from the United States, Boston to be specific."

"Oh wow, I've heard of there!" He smiled brightly "but why are you here though?"

"Um, well, uh my older sister lives here and I uh thought it'd be nice to just finish up my last couple years of high school here with her," I stammered nervously. I didn't want to sound suspicious or anything but whenever I told lies no matter how big or small my voice would always betray me.

"You have an older sister here?"

"Mhm, yeah, she's four years older than me. She moved out here on her own about two years ago though."

"Ah, I see. Hey Mina-san, you mentioned earlier that you are half Japanese?"

"Yeah," looking over my shoulder I smiled at him.

I could understand why he was confused. Unlike back home, people here always seemed either confused or interested at the idea of seeing someone so different from them. Unlike most of the girls around here my hair wasn't black, soft and flowed like ink down my back- sure my hair was soft but not like anyone around here, plus my hair was more like my mother's dark brown hair. Also, my skin wasn't a pale white that people strived for around here or even a tan that farmers sported. Instead my skin was more of a light nut-meg which was an interesting mix between my father's natural lightly tanned skin tone and my mother's warm honey tone. Moreover, what seemed to catch everyone's attention were my bright sea-foam green eyes, an interesting trait I inherited from my mother. Then again, even back home I would often catch people just staring at my eyes with curiosity- it wasn't a common color after all and I had to admit sometimes I couldn't help and stare at them too in the mirror. My sister liked to joke that it was something people might never really get used to, even after two years at her work place her co-workers as well as regulars at the beauty parlor still couldn't get over her sea-foam green eyes.

"What's your other half?" Hinata asked sheepishly, almost as if he was embarrassed to even ask,

Chuckling lightly a smile, "My father is Japanese and my mother is Khoisan,"

"K-ko-san?" he tried to repeat in English.

Tilting my head to the said I laughed, "sorry, I don't know if there is a Japanese word for that but it's pronounced Khoisan and they- uh we are people from South Africa, we aren't necessarily one people…but, um…well it's hard to explain," I trailed off,

"I think I understand…I was just wondering though. You look very Japanese but at the same time you don't," Hinata replied somewhat thoughtfully,

"Eh, I get that a lot. But can I ask you a question?" Not even waiting for a response I asked, "When you said this would be good for training what did you mean by that?"

Perking up at my question Hinata smiled brightly, "I'm training for the upcoming inter-high preliminary for volleyball!"

Grimacing to myself I turned forward so he wouldn't notice. Though I had to admit, I was surprised to hear that someone as short as him was on a volleyball team,

"You might be thinking that I'm too small to be on a team-"

 _Can he read minds?!_ I thought in silent horror,

"But I make up for that in speed and I can jump pretty high-oh and I love to spike! One of my team members…he's not very nice but I guess he's okay once you get to know him but on the court I know he has my back and together we are almost unstoppable!"

"Unstoppable?" I questioned genuinely interested,

"Yeah, we have this cool move, people call it freaky or freak quick but I don't think it's weird at all," Hinata explained, his face twist into a somewhat serious look "I just trust him and even though I don't have to look at what's in front of me the ball always reaches the other side."

"Whoa…that does sound freaky!"

"Ah you think?" Hinata laughed,

"Mhm, but it's good that you don't get discourage," I smiled softly, "not a lot of people I know would be able to have the passion you have even if they had means to compensate for their weakness,

"I don't let my height bother me, I know I can improve in other areas but I really like the feeling of spiking the ball! Oh, by the way Mina-san, you do you happen to play volleyball?"

"N-no, w-why do you ask?" I stammered, the corners of my lips turning upwards in an attempt to mask my nervousness but only making me look like a cat caught doing something bad,

"Well you seem like you do…plus you seem like you'd be tall enough to play, how tall are you anyway?"

"I'm 172.72 cm but no I don't play or anything," I muttered.

"Wah! I'm jealous! I'm only 162.8cm! If I was as tall as you I could probably have more power!"

"Ah, no I'm not that tall!" I chuckled; sweat dropping "besides that it really matter how tall you are if you have the passion to play?"

Looking at me thoughtfully for a moment, Hinata suddenly erupted into a smile "No, it doesn't…oh, we're here!"

Looking in front of me I noticed that we had indeed reached the high school. Turning to the right Hinata made his way to a line of bike racks. Pulling up to one I instantly jumped off causing Hinata to wobble,

"Whoa!"

"Sorry!"

Parking his bike and locking it Hinata looked up at me and grinned, "You should come to the tournament next week! That way I can show you my spikes!"

Sweat dropping at his beaming smile I shielded my eyes, "eh, maybe,"

"Or if you can't you can stop by the gym!"

 _Where other volleyball players are? I don't think so…_ "Eh sure!"

"Oi! Hinata-baka!" A loud voice boomed from across the quad which caused both Hinata and I to shiver in fear,

"K-Kageyama…" Hinata mumbled in a somewhat fearful tone,

"This sounds like my cue to leave, thank you for the ride and it was really nice meeting you Hinata-san!" Bowing and ignoring his protest for me to wait I immediately dashed towards the main building to gather my schedule and avoid having to meet this Kageyama person.

* * *

 _A/N: I just want to take the time now to apologize for butchering or misusing any of the Japanese honorifics. I tried looking it up on Google but to be honest it was kind of confusing so feel free to correct me when I misuse them!_

 _That being said you've probably figured that this fanfic story is oc-centric and with that I just want to say that I won't turn this into a giant ship fest (if you are worried about that-though there might or might not be any pairings) instead I wanted to turn this into a kind of slice of life drama thing, y'know with the daily lives, struggles and basically watch my ocs grow along side the other characters._

 _Feel free to leave a review!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer:_ _I do not own any characters other than my ocs_

* * *

"Eh, why is this so hard to find my classroom?" I groaned out loud when I noticed that I had just passed the same recycling bin again.

Pausing in the middle of the hall I scratched the back of my head and swiveled my head around in hopes of finding my classroom.

After leaving Hinata to face this so called Kageyama fellow I had gone to the main building and gathered all my necessary papers before leaving. Although the secretary had been more than willing to call the class representative from my new homeroom I had wanted to avoid an awkward meeting and had assured her I could find the classroom on my own. However, almost ten minutes later and I was still lost.

"If I don't find my class soon then I'm going to be late and that will definitely be awkward," I sighed,

Even though classes hadn't started yet the floor I was on was completely vacant which probably meant that everyone was now settling into their classrooms. Deciding this time I would try the next floor I made my way to the staircase and took the steps two at a time.

Reaching the next floor I was relieved to see that my classroom was actually at the end of the hall. Jogging slowly to the other end of the floor I couldn't help but peer into the classrooms I passed. I wasn't completely sure but I had a feeling that Hinata was a first year like me so as I passed the classes I tried to find a shock of orange wild hair.

As I passed the second to last classroom my eyes widen at the sight of a tuft of orange hair that was poking out from the middle of a group of boys. From where I was looking I couldn't tell for sure and although I could have gone closer to peer in I was too shy and decided against it and instead headed straight for my homeroom instead.

Stopping just in front of the door I ignored the loud bell the signified the beginning of first period and fidgeted with my uniform. I wanted to look perfect before stepping in, I didn't want to give anyone any more of a reason to stare at me than they already did.

"Ah, are you Mina Hashimoto?" A voice boomed from behind me,

Turning around quickly I saw a somewhat tall man with kind and easy looking brown eyes staring at me, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he said sheepishly, bowing his head slightly he smiled, "I'm Mr. Ken Nakahara, I was told I should be expecting a new student…is that you?"

Nodding quickly I stuck out my hand but quickly pulled it behind my back and bowed instead, "Yes, I'm Mina Hashimoto, I'm sorry that I'm late but I was having trouble looking for the classroom,"

"Ah, don't apologize," Mr. Nakahara chuckled almost bashfully, "I can imagine that your old school was much different from here,"

Nodding sheepishly I shrugged, "my school back home was much smaller than this but had twice as many students, I wasn't expecting it to be this hard to find the room though."

Laughing at my honesty, Mr. Nakahara nodded, "Hmm, I'm glad you were able to find it though, it would have be a little nerve racking to go in the middle of class,"

"It would have been," I agreed growing more comfortable, "ah, but should I go in now?"

"Hmm, let me go in first and just settle everyone down, I'll call you in once everyone is calm." He said with a smile before disappearing into the classroom.

Okay Mina, don't freak out, you can do this!

Slapping myself softly on the cheeks I took some deep breaths,

"Ms. Hashimoto you may come in now," Mr. Nakahara called,

Sucking in a deep breath of air pushed the sliding door aside and step in. Almost instantly I could feel all thirty-five pairs of eyes focused on me.

As I made my way over to stand next to Mr. Nakahara I couldn't stop myself from looking down at my feet as a means to avoid meeting everyone's gaze.

"As I explained earlier class 1-5 will be receiving a new student today," Mr. Nakahara chirped, placing a hand on my shoulder I forced myself to meet his gaze, "why don't you let the class know a little about yourself?"

Prying my eyes away from him I forced myself me look at the class and clenched my hands nervously at my side, "Uh Hello my name-" I started in English. Shaking my head slightly I took a deep breath in started over in Japanese, "Hello, my name is Mina Hashimoto, I'm 16 years old and just transferred from the United States. Uh, I know you might have a few questions about me and I just want to let you know that I don't mind answering them…"

For a moment no one said a word but then almost instantly hands began shooting up in all directions,

"Are you black or Japanese?" Someone yelled from the back of the room,

"How come your Japanese is so good?" someone else questioned loudly,

"Where are you from and why are you joining the semester so late?" Someone else bellowed,

Twiddling my thumbs I tried my best to answer all the questions as best as I could, "Uh I'm half Japanese and half Khosian, my father is Japanese so I've pretty much spoken it all my life along with English. Eh, I'm from the states but my older sister lives out here and uh well um…she asked me to move here and finish up my high school education here so uh that's why I'm here so late…"

Once again even more hands shot up which started to overwhelm me. I didn't mind answering their questions but at the same time I wasn't expecting so many either,

"Settle down everyone," Mr. Nakahara broke in as students continued to fire questions at me, "I'm sure Ms. Hashimoto meant that you could ask her questions after class,"

Shooting a grateful smile at him he merely grinned back, "now are there any free seats available?"

"There's one back here, in front of Mirai-san!" Someone piped from the back of the room,

"Is that okay with you?" Mr. Nakahara asked me,

Nodding in response he gestured for me to go take my seat.

As I made my way to my seat students shot me small little smiles and mumbled their hellos which I shyly responded back to. Once I reached my seat I started to place my backpack in down only to freeze when I felt an intense aura.

Slowly looking up I couldn't help but sweat-drop when I saw that the girl who I assumed to be Mirai was looking at me with wide dark blue eyes and an unreadable expression.

We held eye contact for about ten seconds before her overwhelming presence caused me to look away and quickly sit down.

 _Eh, why is she staring at me like that?! Can't she tell she's making me nervous?!_

For the next fifty minutes I tried desperately to focus on the slightly difficult math lesson but found myself focusing more on the intense presence behind me.

Every time I casted a hesitant glance over my shoulder I would meet Mirai's intense stare. It was almost as if she was trying to see right through the back of my head.

Fidgeting slightly in my seat I kept telling myself to simply ignore her and focus on the lesson, after all math was one of my best subjects so no matter how complicated the lesson was I knew I'd be able to understand the concepts once I focused.

As the lesson carried on, Mr. Nakahara would make it a point to callout to me and ask me if I was following or having any issues which I'd always assure him that it was fine and that I understood.

Thankfully in the middle of one of his more complicated concepts the bell rang signaling that the first period had ended and the second one would start shortly.

Apologizing to the class for not closely following the time, Mr. Nakahara left us with some homework and assured us that we'd finish the last concept tomorrow.

As he made his way out of the room the students suddenly perked up and began chatting amongst themselves. Even though I figured everyone was friendly I still felt too self-conscious to engage in any type of conversation with anyone so instead of looking welcoming and engaging I pretended to intensely focused in my notes and even jotted down some notes of my own.

The next three periods carried on somewhat like the first. The teacher would walk in, greet me and make small talk while the rest of the class would try to throw in some questions at me which I answered. And just like earlier, Mirai continued to focus her laser like gaze at the back of my head.

Fortunately, time seemed to be flying by today. By the time the fourth bell rang signaling the end of social science students were already pushing their desk together and huddling for lunch.

Reaching into my own bag, I realized that I had forgotten my own bento lunch in my cubicle in the main locker area.

Quickly standing up, I skirted around clustered desk and made my way to get my lunch.

As I walked down the halls, students who were walking by in groups or alone would stare at me almost with surprise and confusion but then would quickly smile and wave before returning to their conversations or personal business.

Turning right to take the stares down stare a shiver crawled up my back. Freezing for a moment, I started to tremble as I craned my neck only to see Mirai standing a few feet away from me just staring at me with her intense eyes and a shadow casted over the top half of her face.

 _Eh?! What does she want?!_

Quickly taking the stairs down I could hear her speeding up in an attempt to catch up to me,

"Hey wait!" A high pitch voice protested,

Not even bothering to listen I took the steps more hurried and rushed down to the next landing,

"Hey I said wait Michelle!"

Freezing up I stopped mid way down the stairs. Loud thuds clomped down behind me and then the sounds of heavy breathing,

"Ah! I knew it was you Michelle! Wow you run so fast, I had a hard time catching up to you!"

"W-what did you say?" I croaked nervously as I turned to face a now smiling Mirai,

"Michelle?" Mirai asked in a somewhat confused yet chipper voice "you're Michelle right?"

"N-no I'm not!" I denied shakily,

 _H-how did she know?!_

Leaning forward with her hands on her hips, Mirai studied me for a moment before crossing her arms, "Eh? What do you mean, I know it's you, your eyes give it away Michelle,"

Growing angry I took a step back and glared at her, "I don't know what you're talking about so leave me alone," Spinning on me heels I was about to dash downstairs when her voice stop me,

"You're Michelle Mina Hashimoto, the third daughter of Daisuke and Helena Hashimoto. You are 172.72 cm and weigh 56.25 kg. You ranked fifth overall in the junior international division for women's volleyball when you were 13 years old and received the honorary junior international title for best setter in your division in the same year. Your favorite food is rice balls with pickled radish centers and you hate anything that is excessively sweet. After your mother's death three years ago your dad fell into a crippling depression and resigned from the U.S.A Olympic volleyball team while your second eldest sister Emi moved out of the country. Unlike you, your oldest sister Hana went on to replace your mom on the-"

Without warning, I swung around and gripped Mirai but the color of her shirt and dragged her down the stairs, into the girls' washroom and into a vacant stall then slammed the door shut.

Frowning deeply I studied her smiling face for a moment before giving her a slight shake, "Oi, how do you know all that?"

"I'm your biggest fan! It's my job to know all that!" Mirai cried out with an insulted tone as if I had asked her a stupid question.

Slapping a hand over her mouth I urged her to quiet down. Once I figured she was calm enough I removed my hand and took a small step back, before I could say something, Mirai pulled me into a tight bear hug and began squealing,

"I can't believe I'm really touching you! I'm your biggest fan! Ah you aren't as tall as I thought you'd be, ah wow you are so pretty! Oh- what am I doing?!" Mirai exclaimed, blushing deeply she let me go and bowed a full ninety degrees "I'm Mirai Takahashi," suddenly straighten up, I flattened myself against the stall door as I took in her crazy eyes for a moment.

Clasping my hands in hers, Mirai leaned forwards again "I'm so sorry about earlier, when I first saw you in class I was in shock, at first I thought I was dreaming, I mean there is no way someone like _you_ could ever be someone like here! You are like a god- a legend- a hero- _my hero!_ "

Sweat dropping at her sincerity I pried a hand away and scratched the back of my head, "eh…thanks?"

Gasping as if I had slapped her, Mirai threw her hands on my shoulders and shook me violently, "I should be apologizing! It's me who is scum which is touching you Mina-sama!"

"Eh don't call me that!"

"Mina-dono?"

"Just call me Mina please,"

"L-like friends? Like close friends- does this make us friends?!" Mirai stammered excited,

Shrinking away from her I shrugged, "eh, sure?"

Squealing excited I quickly clamped my hand over her mouth again. This time I studied her. Unlike before she no longer seemed super intimidating, instead with her pale white skin, wide dark blue eyes and long black hair which were pulled into two low pig-tails she looked completely unthreatening and even cute.

"But all that stuff before where did you get that information?"

Pushing my hand way she beamed at me, "from U.S.A sports monthly! I'm only subscribed for the volleyball issues though since you are- I mean _were_ my favorite player I read everything about you!"

"Oh…"

"Speaking of which, can I ask you some things?" Not even bothering to wait for my reply she started firing her questions, "you mentioned that you are living with your older sister, is it Hana because if it is can I meet her? Oh is it Emi?! Can I meet her?! Where is your dad? Is it true that your mom's really dead I heard some theories saying that she's hiding after the last tournament humiliation, why aren't you playing? Are you planning to play here? Oh- are you going to join the volleyball team here?!"

Sweat-dropping I tried to gesture for her to calm down, "eh, I'm living with Emi and no? I don't know where my dad is, my mom is really dead…um, no I don't play anymore and no."

"Ah," nodding as if I had just gave her the meaning to life Mirai instantly perked up again, "well, I won't pry anymore into your life…for now."

Laughing nervously, I pushed the stall door open and exited it, "um then I'm going to get my lunch,"

"I'll come with you! Oh, I can be like your unofficial official tour guide!"

As we made our way out of the bathroom Mirai began enthusiastically explaining to me everything I should know about the school. She pointed out some shortcuts, told me which foods to avoid in the cafeteria and even showed me a neat trick to get two drinks from the vending machine while only having to pay for one.

When the bell chimed and signaled the beginning of fifth period and last we headed for the gym. Unfortunately the school goofed and forgot send me my gym uniform so the teacher allowed me to sit out for today's class. Although Mirai seemed jealous that I managed to get out of gym I couldn't help but be jealous of her. I liked gym, it was one time out of the entire school day where I got to get out of my seat and move freely.

Watching the kids from the sidelines I reflected on what had happened earlier and grew slightly anxious.

When I first moved here, Emi had assured me that no one would even recognize me. Unfortunately she was wrong. The only reason why I had agreed to move out here with her was because of the luxury of being unknown. I wanted to disappear and become irrelevant. I didn't want anyone to look at me and question me about what had happen to my family, I wanted to be a nobody but clearly I wouldn't get that.

Pulling my legs up to my chest and wrapping my arms around them I buried my face in my legs. Who would have figured on my first day of school in the rural parts of Japan I would end up running into someone who knew my past and happened to be one of my biggest self proclaimed biggest fans? I knew this could have been a fluke but now I was scared, what if there were others like her who knew me? Would I get my fresh start that I wanted?

"Hey, are you alright?"

Looking up, I saw Mirai panting slightly with a worried expression on her face, not bothering to wait for a reply she plopped down next me she poked my arm, "you don't look that well, you could skip out on cleaning today and go to the nurse office if you want,"

Looking around me I looked back at her, "class is over?"

"Yeah, Ms. Yoshiro let us go ten minutes early; do you need me to take you to the nurse office?"

"Ah, no I'm fine I was just wondering…um…are there other people like you?"

Pointing at herself, Mirai tilted her head and raised a brow, "me?"

"I meant any fans?"

Looking up to the sky Mirai scrunched her face up in concentration, "probably, we do have two volleyball clubs. I'm not sure about the girls though. They don't seem to be too obsessed with the sport but maybe the guys might know about you, they have some die had players- especially the first years,"

Panicking a little I widen my eyes, "d-do you know them?"

"Yes!" Mirai chirped, "Uh but not personally, I mean I know of them but I could always point them out to you,"

Jumping up I clapped my hands together, "that would be helpful!"

"Well then follow me!" Grabbing my wrist Mirai dragged me to the far end of the school- the same spot where I had ditched Hinata that morning.

Looking around me and shielding my face with my free hand I tried to see if I could see any of the members for myself.

"Okay, we're going to have to hide here," Mirai said pointing a bush near the entrance of a gym, "we'll be able to look in through the window and see anyone who walks in!"

"Eh, are we hiding for my benefit or yours?" I asked sweating dropping,

"Both!" Mirai exclaimed confidently while blushing,

Crouching behind the bush Mirai motioned me to half crouch half walk towards a window that would allow us to peer into the gym,

"You seem to know a lot of about sneaking around," I mumbled with a side long look and smirk,

Swatting my arm, Mirai pointed into the gym, "okay so it looks like the entire team isn't there right now but they should be on their way soon so I'll just let you know about the ones here,"

Following her gaze I noticed that Hinata was inside talking to some bald guy who was standing bare chest with his shirt in hand,

"Okay that chibi orange shrimp is Hinata Shoyo, he's a first year and the mid-blocker for the team,"

"Eh? But he's so short!"

"Mhm, but you'll understand once you see him play,"

Smirking at her I wiggled my brows, "so I'm going to go ahead here and assume that you've been stalking these guys for a while,"

"S-shut up! Anyway, that bald guy there is Tanaka Ryunosuke, he's a second year student the team's wing spiker- he's always yelling and being loud not to mention he can never keep his shirt on."

"Hmm, who's that?" I asked pointing to a tall blond guy with glasses who was glaring at a tall mean looking guy with dark hair,

"Ah, that's Kei Tsukishima a first year and he also the team's middle blocker and that one is Tobio Kageyama- he's also a first year and the official team setter"

"That's Kageyama?!" I repeated, peering closely I had to admit that he looked just as mean and intimidating as he sounded this morning,

"Yeah, why…do you have a crush on him or something?" Mirai asked with a questioning look, "because if you do then good luck with that,"

"Ah! I was just asking!" Blushing slightly I pointed at a boy who appeared to be even shorter than Hinata, "who's that?"

"Ugh," Mirai shuttered dramatic, "that's Yu Nishinoya, a second year and the team's libero- also he's a loud mouth who told the team that I was stalking them, pfft, as if!"

"Uh…isn't this considered stalking?" I teased, "Who's that one? The one with the dark green hair?"

"Uh, that's, uh…he, um, T-tadashi Yamaguchi," Mirai stammered and let out a tiny squeal, "he's a first year and the team's pinch server,"

"Hmm, what's this? Are you blushing? Does someone have a crush on him?" I asked with a sly grin,

"Eh?! Don't look at me like that! You look like a cat that found its prey!"

"Sorry, sorry, I couldn't help it. Anyway, what about those three over there?"

"Eh?" Standing up on her knees, Mirai squinted hard, "I honestly have no clue."

Before I could question her on that a loud, booming voice bellowed somewhere off to the side, "Oi!"

Eyes widening, Mirai grabbed my hand and threw herself stomach flat into the ground and then gesture to me to do the same. Not bothering to ask why I did but only because the voice had sounded terrifying,

"Ya! Come out from wherever you're hiding damn it!" A grumpy yet angry voice snapped in a scary tone,

Peeking out from our hiding spot I noticed a blond, spiky hair man in a bright red track suit stomping about only a few feet away from us,

"That's Ukai Keishin, he just became the coach and he's really scary,"

"Why is he screaming though?" I whispered,

"Ah Calm down Ukai I'm sure it's just that first year girl again," a mellow voice said,

Covering my mouth and averting my eyes away from Mirai's angry yet embarrassed glare I started to laugh, "Oh, so they know you?"

"N-no! They know of me though! Besides I'm not here all the time!" she replied defensively,

"Suga-san's right Ukai, besides it's not like she's doing anything bad,"

"Shut up Ashai! She could be spying on us," Ukai hollered causing the boy called Ashai to look pathetically hurt and turn away which in turn caused Suga to sweat drop and pat the taller boy's back,

"What's with all the screaming?" A familiar and shrill voice yelled, hopping out of gym I saw that Hinata as well as the other boys inside the gym had come out and were all sending looks of either annoyance, concern or boredom to their coach.

"Ukai thinks that first year girl who always hangs out around here is spying on us," a boy with cropped, tousled brown hair explained,

"Wah!? A Spy?! We should look around Daichi!" Nishinoya yelled angrily causing Hinata and Tanaka to agree with just as much enthusiasm,

"Okay this is ridiculous, we need to leave," I mumbled, getting up to crawl away Hinata's head suddenly whipped in our direction.

Freezing I wasn't sure if I should move or not. I knew from where we were there was no possible way Hinata could see us but with the way he was staring intently at our hiding spot I started to doubt myself.

Just as he took a step in our direction, Kageyama suddenly whipped his hand out and gripped Hinata tightly by the hair, "Baka what are you do?!"

"Wah! Let go!"

Bickering back and forth Daichi suddenly gripped both juniors by the back of their neck and pried them apart with a hauntingly scare look on his face, "cut it out both of you."

"Y-yes."

Breathing out a sigh of relief I got back onto my stomach.

"What were you looking at Hinata?" Tanaka asked curiously,

"I thought I smelt Mina…" Hinata replied slowly turning his head in our direction again,

"Wait how does he know you?" Mirai asked turning to me with a small knowing smirk,

"Ohhh" the boys chorused causing Hinata to blush furiously,

"A girl? Chibi-san has a girlfriend?" Tsukishima hummed with a condescending smirk only causing Hinata to blush even more,

"Shut up! N-no, I met a girl today on my way to school," Hinata explained quickly, "I accidently hit her with my bike and when I landed on her I caught a whiff of strawberries and I just smelt strawberries again so I thought maybe it was her!"

"You perverted little dog you!" Tanaka and Nishinoya yelled teasingly,

"Tsk, baka, you should have looked where you were going," Kageyama muttered,

"Well was she cute?" Tanaka asked excitedly,

"What did she look like?!" Nishinoya added just as excitedly,

Blushing slightly I watched intently as Hinata played with the question in his mind.

"Hmm, mhm, she had bright sea foam green eyes and was tall…she had short hair with a red hair band in it and well her smile was nice," Hinata mumbled looking embarrassed causing all the boys to either smirk or raise their eyebrows, "she said she was only half Japanese, she mentioned she was k-ko- uh I don't know how to say it but either way I guess…I guess she was cute,"

Once again, the boys let out a chorus of ohhs,

"But she's not my type!" Hinata hollered in an embarrassed and meek tone.

 _I'm not your type?!_ I thought crossly,

"She's taller than me and I don't think I'm her type either…we'd look funny together…" he trailed off quietly,

"Ah! Mina-sama please don't stand up they'll see us!" Mirai begged as she tried to stop me from standing,

"Tsk, we're wasting time," Kageyama remarked rather coldly, turning on his heels he marched back into the gym.

Perking up almost instantly, Hinata jumped up and yelled, "Oi Kageyama send me a toss so I can spike!" Running in after him the rest of the boys followed all sweat dropping and chatting amongst themselves.

Giving one last threatening look across the empty quad, Ukai finally entered the gym and slid the door shut behind me.

"Yeesh, that was close!" Mirai breathed finally releasing her iron like grip from my arm.

"Did you _hear_ him?!" I practically shouted while gesturing wildly to the gym "how am I not his type? I'm _everybody's_ type- I'm adorable!"

Letting out a weak laugh Mirai threw her face into her fold arms, "I'm just glad that they didn't come over here,"

Grunting a reply, Mirai nudged me, "okay, now let's get out of here before someone actually spots us,"

Agreeing we started to stand up when we suddenly heard a rustling off to our right,

Whipping our heads to the sound we found ourselves only an arm length away from a blonde hair girl who had a single high pigtail secured on one side of her head staring back at us with light brown eyes with an eerie calmness.

Bowing her head slowly, she finally looked back with a fearful small smile, "P-please…please don't kill me."

* * *

 _A/N: Hmm, wonder who that blonde girl is_

 _Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter, leave a review on what you think of the characters so far!_


	3. Chapter 3

_Aho! Aho! Aho!_

Peering up to watch a flock of crows pass by I returned my gaze to the mysterious blonde girl who was now trembling as she stared back at me,

"Eh, excuse me?"

Letting out a sharp yelp, the blonde girl suddenly bowed so deeply that her forehead knocked against the ground, "I'm sorry! I didn't know you were hiding in these bushes as well, please don't kill me!"

"Um what-" Mirai started with a confused smile only to be interrupted by the girl's repetitive apologies,

Turning slightly so I could look at Mirai, I covered my mouth and whispered, "Do you know her?"

Looking over my shoulder, Mirai studied the girl for a moment before shrugging, "she looks familiar but I can't seem to match a name to her,"

Turning back to the girl I couldn't help but sweat drop when I noticed that she had now taken to repeated bowing while wailing sorry over and over.

"Eh, we are not going to-"

"What are you three doing?" An annoyed sounding voice roared from above us.

Snapping our attention upwards we all let out a tiny squeak of fear when we saw realized that the dean was frowning down on us,

Bolting upwards the girl accidently connected the top of her head to the dean's chin causing him to topple backwards and his very obvious toupee to slide off his head and land on the group a few feet away.

Throwing our hands over our mouth and struggling to keep back our laughter, Mirai and I simply squinted at the girl who was now apologizing and bowing profusely to the dean,

Noticing our trembling shoulders and our cat-eye like stares, the dean pointed a chubby finger at us and huffed indignantly, "up, you two now! All three of you are coming with me to the office,"

"Eh?" Mirai exclaimed, "Why? She's the one who knocked your toupee off!"

Nudging her violently in the ribs I shot her a look. Of all the things to say I don't think pointing out that his hair was now lying a few feet away in the dirt was one of them.

Looking suddenly stricken as he had just realized, the dean's face turned began to turn red from what I could only assume to be a mixture of embarrassment, anger and horror.

"What are you all doing out here anyway?" He bellowed while using his hands to shield is shiny bald head,

"Ah…enjoying nature?" Mirai mumbled,

"Y-yes, nature." The blonde girl agreed nervously while I nodded my head with a wide cheesy grin,

Narrowing his eyes at us the dean simply folded his arms, "so you guys think being cute is going to get out of this?"

Opening her mouth as if to say something I quickly grabbed the back of Mirai's head and forced it down so we were bowing, "I'm so sorry, the truth is we were just uh looking for um one of the soccer balls we kicked over here during gym,"

"Hmm?" the dean hummed thoughtfully, "well have you found it?"

Peering up through my eyelashes I gave him a cheeky smile, "uh no not yet but we are still looking!"

Suddenly turning his focus to the blonde girl he narrowed his eyes again, "and what were you doing out here?"

Stammering helplessly and looking like she was about to faint I quickly interjected, "uh she was helping us look! We were taking such a long time that uh she wanted to help us!"

Crossing his arms and studying us I could feel beads of cold sweat trailing down my back. It was one thing to be caught skipping out on cleaning duties but it was a completely different thing to be caught skipping cleaning duties and spying on the boy's volleyball team _after_ knocking the dean's toupee right off his head.

Finally letting out a deep sigh the dean motioned us to stand up, "I can understand that you are simply trying to find something but that doesn't really excuse the fact that I caught you goofing around in the bushes while everyone else is fulfilling their cleaning duty,"

Bowing again we all apologized,

"It's alright but I don't think it's fair that you girls didn't help with cleaning though." Pausing for a moment the dean's eye's suddenly brightened, "ah I guess you can always clean the gym once the boy's volleyball club is done in there!"

Opening our mouths, we all let out squawks of horror.

This was bad, really bad! If the dean marched us in there right now their coach would surely ask us why he had brought us in there which meant that the dean would tell him about how he had caught us hiding in the bushes in a lame attempt to avoid cleaning duty so he brought us here to clean up after them and _that_ meant there was higher chance of being recognized and not to mention being labeled a fellow stalker alongside Mirai.

I couldn't let that happen, I _wouldn't_ let that happen.

Hunching forward and crouching slightly I gripped my stomach dramatically and let out a low, pain filled groans, "Un, I-I don't feel so good,"

"Excuse me?" the dean asked with a skeptical look on his face,

"Un, cramps," I said making sure to sound as breathless as possible, "womanly cramp, un,"

Turning slightly red the dean opened his mouth to say something only to be cut off by Mirai's groans of discomfort,

"Aish! I'm having womanly cramps too, un, curse you mother nature!"

 _A little dramatic but okay_

"Uh, ah, m-me t-too!" the blonde girl sputtered looking a little unsure of herself.

"Oh my," the dean fretted, "forget what I said just go to the nurse office now and lie down for a bit!"  
Without even waiting for a response the dean made a hasty bee line towards his toupee and sped walk around the corner and disappeared from view.

Just to be sure that he wouldn't come back to find us all standing there looking normal again, I continued to fake having period cramps which Mirai and the blonde girl did too.

After a few minutes I finally straightened out and let out a sigh of relief, "ah! That was close,"

"I can't believe you sucker punched his toupee right off his head," Mirai giggled looking at the girl,

"Eh? It was an accident!" she exclaimed looking very embarrassed, "I'd never do that on purpose!"

Laughing at her reaction I waved my hand, "we know, we know, we're joking. Oh by the way I'm Mina that's Mirai,"

"H-hello, I'm Yachi Hitoka!" she responded bowing deeply again, "w-we're actually in the same class,"

"Doesn't your back hurt from all that bowing?" Mirai teased causing the girl to mumble an apology,

Scratching the back of my head gestured towards her, "I didn't notice that we were in the same class,"

"I-it's okay, I wouldn't really expect you to," she replied "ah! I didn't mean it like that! I meant that you are new and pretty so you probably wouldn't have noticed someone like me!"

Waving her off again I chuckled sheepishly, "well I was nervous this morning and I was way too shy to even look up when I was introducing myself but where do you sit?"

"Um," blushing a little she averted her gaze from me and twiddled her thumbs, "I actually sit right next to you…"

…

 _Aho! Aho! Aho!_

"There sure are a lot of crows out today," Mirai commented as she shielded her eyes and peered up to the sky.

"I'm so sorry!" I gushed punching Mirai in the arm,

"It's okay!" She laughed growing a tiny bit comfortable.

"Sorry to interrupt your apology fest but we should probably head to the nurse office before the dean comes back to check on us," Mirai said rubbing the arm I had just punched; "besides I think I might actually need a nurse."

Nodding our heads in agreement the three of us made our way to the nurse office in awkward silence. While it was obvious to Mirai and I why _we_ were hiding in the bush we had no idea why Yachi was there.

As we made our way into the main building we all snuck side long glances, each willing ourselves to bring up the somewhat awkward question.

Thankfully, before anyone could say anything we had arrived at the nurse office.

Sliding the door aside I poked my head inside, "Uh, hello?"

No answer.

Looking around for a moment I turned to other two behind me, "looks like no one is here,"

Shrugging Mirai crossed her arms, "that's fine, it's not like we actually needed a nurse or anything."

"Um, b-but don't we need a note or something? You know, just in case we have to show the dean that we stopped by," Yachi pointed out,

"You're right," I responded, "maybe-"

"Hello? Is someone there?"

Whipping out heads around we all let out shrieks when we saw the school's nurse standing behind us with what appeared to be a giant blood stain in the middle of her shirt,

"Pleasedontkillus!" Yachi suddenly cried while bowing,

"Why would you say that then bow?!" Mirai snapped in an exasperated tone,

Looking down at her shirt the school's nurse peered down at her shirt and let out a small chuckle, "oh this? This is just pen ink, I was trying to fill in some forms but the ink kind of just squirted out,"

Laughing nervously the three of us mumbled our apologies,

"Ah, it's okay." The nurse smiled waving us off, "but why are you three here?"

"Um..." Mirai started darting her eyes over to me,

"Uh, we uh were feeling kind of ill but now we're okay but we just need some notes," I explained nervously

Studying us for a moment the nurse suddenly reached forward and grabbed my shoulder, "well I can't let you three just leave with notes without properly making sure you are fine, now come in and take a seat."

Having no other choice but to follow her inside her office we allowed her to take our temperate, examine our eyes and even peer into our ears,

"Well it doesn't seem like anything is wrong with you three," she said looking at us with a puzzled look,

"Eh well we just had cramps," Yachi squeaked looking like she had just gotten caught with her hand in the cookie jar,

Raising a thin eyebrow the nurse pointed a finger at us, "all three of you?"

"Yes," we answered in union.

"Hmm, well you guys better lie down for a bit,"

"That's okay, I feel much better! In fact we all feel much better; whatever you did must have healed us!" Jumping out of her seat, Mirai did a quick shuffle and jazz hands to demonstrate her point, "You see? All healed!"

Face planting my face in my hand, Yachi sweat dropped and nodded weakly.

Smirking at us as if she finally realized our lie, the nurse crossed her arms, "well seeing as how you all felt _sick_ enough to skip out of cleaning duty just to come here I should make sure you guys rest long enough before releasing you, in fact I'll call your parents or guardians to come and pick you up,"

Instantly protesting against that, the nurse quickly slammed her hand on the counter next to her to quiet us down, "no if and or buts girls! Now go _lie_ down in the next room and _wait_ until your parents or guardians can come get you.

Having no other choice but to listen to her we nodded compliantly and trekked single file towards a small room that was covered with a plain blue hospital curtain.

Pushing the curtain aside I entered the dimly lit room and crawled up onto the first bed and let out a sigh. Following my actions, Mirai and Yachi each crawled onto separate beds and let out their own sigh of annoyance.

"Man this sucks!" Mirai complained after a moment of silence, propping herself up on her elbows she shot me an angst-filled look, "it's going to take forever for someone to come and pick me up! My parents work in the city so it will be at least an hour before someone gets me!" Flopping back in her bed Mirai threw a miniature tantrum and kicked her legs around.

Sweat-dropping at her childish antics I looked over at her, "at least you have an idea when someone will be picking you up, my older sister is super unreliable so I have no clue when I'll be going home," sitting up on my bed I casted my look over to Yachi, "what about you?"

"I'm not sure," she started almost sadly, "my mom's pretty busy and there isn't anyone else to come get me."

Making a sympathetic sound I smiled softly, "looks like we are in the same boat,"

"Speaking of being in the same boat," Mirai said suddenly sitting upright, "Yachi-san, what were you doing hiding in the bushes?"

Instantly turning red, Yachi simply opened and closed her mouth as if she was struggling to find the right answer,

"Were you spying on the boy's volleyball team?" Mirai pressed with narrow eyes, "were you spying on someone in particular? Was it Yamaguchi-kun because if it was he's not interested so _back off_!"

Shrinking away from Mirai's crazed and threatening eye, Yachi mumbled sniffly apologies,

"Ya, Mirai, don't you think you are being too harsh?" Turning towards Yachi I tried to calm her down, "don't mind her, she's just violently protective about her one-sided infatuation with Yamaguchi-san,"

Ignoring the loud indignant squawk Mirai let out, I raised a brow at Yachi, "but seriously what were you doing out there?"

"I was waiting for someone…" she mumbled with pink cheeks,

"In the bushes?" Mirai and I asked in union, both sporting skeptical looks.

Looking startled, Yachi waved her hands about, "I-I didn't mean anything sinister or perverted by that! I was just waiting for someone. I-I'm too shy to talk to them in person so sometimes I kind of wait around and try to muster some courage to say something but I always get scared when all the other guys come around, they are just so tall and scary…" Yachi trailed off throwing her red-tinted face in her hands,

"Well who are you waiting around for?" Mirai asked curiously,

Twisting her face as if she had just tasted something sour, Yachi twiddled her thumbs nervously before answering, "H-Hinata-san, but I think he might like someone else…"

Blushing now, I let out a loud and phony laugh, "I'm sure you simply misunderstood what he meant!"

Pinching her brows together, Yachi shot me a cute pouty frown, "I'm not stupid, I heard everything he said, and he called _you_ cute,"

"But he also said I wasn't his type!" I retorted waving my hands wildly in front of me,

"Which you found ridiculous since you're everyone's type," Mirai countered,

"Ya, stay out of this!" I snapped,

"Hey, I'm just quoting what you said," Mirai scoffed with her hands up in mock surrender.

"But that doesn't matter," Yachi replied looking determined, "one day I'm going to gather some courage and talk to him and then he will call _me_ cute!"

Sweat dropping at her intense and determined fiery aura I nodded, "Mhm,"

"Mirai," the nurse voice suddenly caused us to all turn or heads and to notice that she had poked her head in the room, "your mother is here to pick you up, I'll sign your note before you leave,"

"Well, looks like I'm going home!" Mirai cheered; hopping out of bed she waved at Yachi and pulled me into a half hug, "I'll see you guys tomorrow!"

"Bye!" Yachi and I called after her as Mirai skipped out of the room,

"Oh and Yachi I just wanted to let you know that I called your mother but she said she wouldn't be able to come and pick you up but she did give me permission to sign you out and send you off on your own, so you can come too and I'll sign you out."

"Oh," Yachi said with a somewhat disappointed look, shaking her head quickly she hopped off the bed and waved at me, "I guess I'll be going too, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," smiling and waving back at her I watched with envy as Yachi ducked under the nurse's arm and disappeared into the next room.

"Um, what about me?" I asked when I noticed that the nurse was about to leave,

Looking over her shoulder she gave me a small smile, "Ah, well I tried to reach your guardian but I couldn't get a hold of her,"

 _What?! What is Emi doing?! Doesn't she always have her phone on her?!_

"Oh…um…does that mean I'm going to have to wait?"

Nodding the nurse turned to look at me, "unfortunately yes, I'd let you leave but I need permission before letting a sick student go home."

"B-but I'm fine!"

"Mhm, well let me try a in an hour and if I can't still reach her I'll release you." Without waiting for a response, the nurse let the curtain fall back into place and disappeared into the next room.

Flopping backwards into bed I couldn't help but scowl up at the ceiling.

 _Stupid Emi, thanks to you I have to wait a whole freaking hour before I can leave!_

To make matters worse I suddenly realized that since I didn't have a bike to get back home on that would mean I'd take me another hour before reaching home.

Shivering at the thought of being jumped on the way back home by some potentially perverted old men I curled up onto my side and silently mumbled a string of threats, profanities and curses at my older sister.

For the next hour I filled the time by making silent offering to any god who would listen to me and offered my eternal servitude in exchange for some divine punishment to be inflicted upon my older sister.

Just as I started my fifty-sixth prayer the sound of the blue curtains broke my trance,

"Mina?"

"Yes?" rolling over to my side I noticed that the nurse was giving me a weird look,

"Uh are you alright?"

Sitting up straight I nodded, "Mhm, I was just asking the gods to guide me home safely and to punish any wrong doers who might hurt me,"

 _I'm talking about you Emi-baka!_

"Uh, okay…Um, well I just wanted to let you know that I tried to reach your guardian again but it seems like she's still tied up so I'm going to let you go now,"

 _Finally._

Climbing off the bed I followed the nurse into the other room. Watching her sign the necessary slips I focused my gaze outside. Thankfully it wasn't completely dark which meant if I was lucky enough I could probably get home before the sun completely set.

"Here you go Mina," the nurse chirped drawing my attention, "I'm sorry that I had to make you wait but you can probably understand that I'm just following school standard protocols."

"Mhm," I hummed clenching my teeth.

Taking the note from her, I bowed and thanked her before heading to the locker area.

Once I had reached the area I gathered my books and papers and shoved them into my bag before slinging it over my shoulder. Changing out of my school slippers I slipped on my sneakers and made sure my cubicle was nice and neat.

Opting to exit from the back of the school I pulled on my windbreaker and instinctively reached into my pocket before realizing that I hadn't brought my phone with me today but had instead left at home still plugged in. This obviously meant that for the next hour or so I couldn't leave hundreds and hundreds of threatening voicemails or texts for Emi let alone use the flashlight once it got too dark.

"I guess I can just do that when I get home," I sighed aloud.

Pushing the exit doors I started towards the main streets that led towards my area.

As I crossed the quad I noticed that the club units which Mirai had showed me earlier seemed to be occupied by a club.

Raising a brow I stopped walking and stared.

 _It's almost 8 o'clock, who could possibly be in there?_

Almost as if someone from within the units had heard my thoughts the door to the lit room suddenly flung open revealing a beaming Hinata and a scowling Kageyama,

Eyes widening, I quickly searched for somewhere to hide before hastily ducking into a row of bushes that were conveniently next to me.

"Oh god, I'm starting to turn into Mirai," I mumbled miserably.

"Ah Noya-senpai teach me how to do that rolling thunder move!"

Letting out a loud boisterous laugh Nishinoya slapped his chest, "of course but ask me one more time!"

"Ni-shi-no-ya-senpai~!"

Peering out from my hiding spot I sweat dropped as I watch Nishinoya throw his head back and laugh madly while Hinata star-stricken continued to cheer senpai.

Crouching back in my spot I listened as Kageyama whacked Hinata over the head causing the two to furiously bicker,

"Cut that out!" Daichi's voice boomed from within the club room,

"Y-yes."

 _Geez, he sounds terrifying._ I thought audibly gulping and clenching my fist to my side.

Hunching forward I tried to make myself as small and unnoticeable as possible when I heard their voices coming closer.

"We are going to crush Nekoma High!" Tanaka's voice erupted from a few feet away from me,

"I'll show their libero my skills for sure tomorrow," Nishinoya added just as loudly,

"This time I'll get to closely observe their setter's skills," Kageyama said in a rather dark and intense tone.

"Can you at least not try to scare him tomorrow?" Sugawara chuckled in an exasperated tone,

"Ah I can't wait to see Kenma tomorrow!" Hinata exclaimed cheerfully.

Just as I thought they had passed my hiding spot, I felt someone stop next to where I was crouched.

"Hey, Hinata what's wrong?" Sugawara asked, stopping as well

 _Go away!_ I hissed mentally.

"I-I think I just felt my phone vibrating," Hinata said in a confused tone.

Listening quietly to Hinata rummage through his bag, I pulled my legs up tightly to my chest and tried to fight off the urge to hyperventilate.

 _Okay this is ridiculous. Right now you are hiding in a bush with some delusional fear that someone might reconigze you- I mean what's the worst that's going to happen if someone did?_

 _The world will end? Pfft, as if._

 _The paparazzi will harass you? They'll get bored after a week!_

Slowly calming down I realized that I was being way too dramatic, I mean they only plausible and horrifying thing that could happen was that Hana would find me-

Freezing up instantly I could feel my heart racing wildly in my chest.

 _Crap you'll die if Hana finds out you're here!_

"Hurry up!" Tageyama snapped clearly irritated with standing around, "I'm hungry and I want to go home so I can practice that new toss,"

"Eh, you still have some energy?" Aishi chuckled tiredly,

"Shut up!" Hinata yelled back, "no one is making you wait for me!"

Making an annoyed sound from the back of his throat I listened as Tageyama stalked off,

"Do you need us to wait for you?" Daichi asked.

"No, you guys can go on ahead, I'll see you tomorrow," Hinata responded.

Still crouched in my spot all I could do was listen as the boys bid their goodbyes and followed after Tageyama to god knows where.

Fully expecting Hinata to take off after a minute or two I found myself growing annoyed when I still could still feel his presence on the other side of the bush.

 _What are you doing? Do you live here or something? Go home!_

Suddenly, without warning two hands pried the bush apart to reveal Hinata's face.

For a good minute we simply stared at each other.

Clearing my throat and dragging my gaze away from him I looked up at the sky, "it's such a beautiful night…the moon is shining so brightly."

Peering up, Hinata looked at me again, "the moon isn't out though…"

Standing up, I dusted off my skirt and nodded, "you're right, I must have mistaken our school flag for the moon."

"A-are you alright Mina-san?"

"Yes," laughing nervously I figured that I better change the subject before Hinata asked me why I was hiding in the bus, "so, uh why are you still at school so late?"

Perking up at my question, Hinata's eyes shone brightly, "we were practicing a new set for tomorrow's practice match against Nekoma High!"

"Ah, but it's so late!" I responded, stepping over the bushes, I started towards the main road with Hinata quickly following.

"It is but we wanted to practice our new formation so we kind of got carried away and forgot to look at the time…but what were you doing here so late though?"

Laughing sheepishly, I scratched the back of my head, "Uh, well I was feeling sick earlier before so I was in the nurse office,"

"Oh, is that why you were in the bushes back then?" Hinata asked sympathetically,

"Eh, y-yeah!"

Gesturing for me to hop onto his bike he gave me a serious look, "here, sit down, I can bike you home if you are still feeling sick."

"Uh, are you sure about that?"

"Yes!"

Giving him a small lopsided smile I gathered my skirt and snuggled into the basket of his bike. Hopping on himself, Hinata gave a small grunt before pushing off.

As we biked home we chatted about our day. He told me how he had pretty much failed his English quiz that morning and how during practice coach Ukai had nearly caught some spies outside of the gym.

Feigning surprise I steered the conversation away from how him and his team had almost caught Mirai, Yachi and I huddled in the bushes earlier that day.

"Oi, you can let me off here, I have to take a left here and go up that way," I told Hinata when we were almost near my home,

"Ah, wow I live just a few miles that way," Hinata said pointing in his direction, "we live so close!"

Laughing slightly, I hopped off his bike, "thanks for the lift,"

"No problem," he grinned, "walking would have taken too long for you especially since you're sick, besides this is good training- ah, n-n-not like your fat or anything!"

Stifling my laughter I smirked, "good,"

"Heh, oh, by the way if you like I can give you a lift to school tomorrow if you don't have your bike by then,"

Agreeing to his offer, we said our goodbyes and parted ways.

Making my way up the slope towards the house I noticed that the lights were on.

 _So she's home eh?_

Slipping off my sneaks and opening the door I was fully expecting to find my sister lying in fetal position while clutching her bald head and covered in warts thanks to my prayers so when I opened the front door I couldn't help but let out a rather crude and loud cry of anger.

Clearly not bald or cover in warts was Emi snuggled up in the lap of some random man in our living room. Flipping through a magazine and nursing a glass of white wine. Finally looking up, Emi lazily tipped her glass towards me as a hello,

"What took you so long?" She asked with a somewhat tipsy grin, "I got a couple calls from your school earlier so I thought you died but since you're here I guess you're fine!"

 _You thought I was dead…you heard the phone and still didn't pick up…even though you though I was…_

"Oi, Mina…Mina? Why is your face twitching like that? Eh? If you're going to have a stroke then don't drag it on!"

 _Aho! Aho! Aho!_

* * *

 _So many crows!_

 _Please review!_


	4. Chapter 4

" _Mi-na-chan_ ~, would you like some more eggs…Mina-chan…Mina? Oi, you brat I'm talking to you!"

Casting a sidelong look at Emi, I continued to chew my breakfast in silence causing my sister to let out a long and dramatic sigh,

"C'mon Mina, how many times do you want me to apologize about yesterday?"

Narrowing my eyes at her I replied in a dark tone, "Until you go bald and are covered in warts."

Squawking in horror, Emi rushed over to my side, gripped me by the shoulders and shook me, "Ya, Mina-chan don't say things you don't mean! You would never wish such a cruel thing like that on your darling big sister would you!?"

"Mhm," I grunted not even looking at her.

Reaching for another slice of pickle radish I popped the tart bite size radish into my mouth and chewed.

Yes, I was still mad and yes I was giving her the cold shoulder-childish but effective.

It didn't matter how many times she apologized to me since it didn't make up for the fact that despite being home she had ignored all the calls from the school just so she could get a little frisky with some stranger.

"Fine, I get it your mad," Emi sighed backing away, "that's a shame though, I happened to find my bike and I was going to let you borrow it but since you are so _mad_ then I guess I should just put it away, y'know since you're so _mad_ at me."

…

" _Emi-Chan_ ~!" Throwing my chopsticks down, I wrapped my arms tightly around Emi's waist, "Ya, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Laughing cockily and patting my head, Emi ruffled my hair, "No need to say thanks, I am your reliable and darling big sister after all!"

Sweat dropping, I resisted the urge to smack her upside the head. What did she even mean by reliable? Could she even spell it?

Not even bothering to point out to her that she probably the least reliable person in Miyagi Japan let alone on this entire planet, I excitedly followed her out back where she proudly pointed at a rather beat up and sad looking bike,

"Eh, that's it?" I asked deflating quickly, crouching down I peered underneath the bike, "is the actual bike under this thing?"

Shooting me a glare as if I had just called her newborn baby ugly, Emi pulled me up from my crouching stance by the back of neck, "That _is_ the bike!"

"Oh,"

"Well aren't you happy?"

"Yes," I said, in a flat and indifferent tone, "I am _so_ very happy,"

"Oi, you could at least pretend to be grateful!" Emi complained with her hands on her hips.

Mumbling a half hearted apology I looked over at the bike again.

Did I really want to take that sad and pathetic looking excuse of a bike all the way to school? Maybe if I rode it into the rice paddy fields I could just tell Emi someone had stolen the bike at school.

"Make sure you bring this back," Emi said as if she had heard my dark and devious thoughts, "I know it looks a little rough around the edges now but I have a day off tomorrow so when you get back from school we can probably clean this bike up and make it look a little better,"

Nodding slowly, I quickly scratched out my plan and decided that maybe a coat of paint and some good old elbow grease could fix this thing up.

Thanking her again; I wheeled the bike up front.

Placing on my school bag and bento lunch into the small weave basket, I gathered my short hair and parted it into two sections and braided them before securing the ends with a small hair tie.

Waving goodbye to Emi I hopped onto the bike and started towards school.

About five minutes into the ride I realized that Hinata might be waiting for me back there, after all he had offered to give me a lift to school today.

Debating on whether or not I should turn the back, the universe decided to make that decision to for me when I caught a glimpse of Hinata's bright orange hair coming over the horizon.

"Good morning!" I called; coming to a halt I smiled and waved at Hinata.

"Ah, good morning…" was Hinata's dead reply- the kind of reply you'd expect to hear from someone who had just confessed that they had ran over a puppy's tail and made it cry.

Sweat dropping at his uncharacteristically solemn look and tone, I scratched the back of my head.

Despite not knowing him for very long from what I could tell Hinata was anything but a gloomy person.

Loud, overly enthusiastic- a little _too_ enthusiastic sure but certainly _not_ a gloomy person,

Pedaling side by side in silence for a few minutes I constantly snuck side long glances at Hinata.

He wasn't smiling.

In fact all he was doing was sighing. Loud, exaggerated sighs- almost as if he had just learned that the world was coming to an end and that he- the chosen one was the only one who could save the world thus making him to be the sole person to shoulder the entire weight of the world.

"Hey, Hinata-san, are you feeling okay?"

Casting me a side long glance and a small ill looking smile he nodded, "Ah, yes, sorry to worry you Mina-san,"

"Eh, it's alright but seriously, what's wrong?"

Looking at me for a moment, Hinata looked at me as if he was mauling over whether or not he should tell me what was bothering him.

Just when I thought Hinata wasn't going to tell me he came to a sudden and dramatic halt and pouted at me with tears in his eyes,

"MymomfoundmyenglishquizscorelastnightandtoldmeIcouldntgotothepracticematchtoday!"

Blinking blankly at him, I tilted my head, "Eh, can you say that again?"

"My mom found my English quiz score last night and told me I couldn't go to the practice match against Nekoma high today!" He repeated looking completely and utterly miserably,

Making a sympathetic sound, I motioned for Hinata to follow me, "did you tell your mom how important this match is to you?"

"Yes!" Hinata cried, "But she said and I quote- _I don't care what game you are playing today, you can kick some balls_ after _you bring your marks up!"_

Looking at me with wide, watery brown eyes Hinata sniffled, "how am I supposed to do that before this afternoon? I don't want to miss out on the match!"

"Ya," I started sweat dropping and patting his back, "why don't you just explain to your teacher your situation and ask them to retake the English quiz?"

"Do you think that would work?" Hinata gasped suddenly perking up,

"Mhm, I it might be a long shot but if you are really serious about going to that match today then your teacher might let you retake the test,"

"Hmm, you're right," Hinata said with a determined tone, "I'll just explain to Mr. Aoi my situation and I know after hearing me out he'll definitely see my point and let me take that test again!"

"That's the spirit!"

"Hey, Mina-san…I'm wondering," blushing slightly, he looked over at me with wide hopeful eyes, "I never scored a double digit on a quiz before…do you think I'll be fine?"

… _He's doomed…_

"Ya, Mina-san why are you looking at me like that?!" Hinata wailed,

"Sorry, sorry!" I apologized sheepishly, "but uh…I don't um think you'll be fine considering the fact that you never scored a double digit on a quiz before-"

"I'm doomed!" Hinata shrilled clutching his hair, "I won't be able to go to the practice match, and the team will _hate_ me! Kageyama will _kill_ me!" Continuing on his rant, Hinata began swerving his bike recklessly.

Sweat-dropping at his dramatic reaction, I brought my lower lip between my teeth and worried it anxiously.

I wasn't sure if what I was going to say next would be a good idea but seeing Hinata this hysterical was actually upsetting regardless of the fact that I didn't know him that well. Besides, it was painfully obvious that Hinata wanted to go to that match more than anything.

Also, if I didn't say or do something now, it looked like Hinata would bike right off the path and right into the rice paddy field below.

"If you want I could help you out with studying,"

Stopping mid-rant, Hinata whipped his head towards me and clasped my hands between his own, "M-mina-san you'd do that for _me_?"

Letting out a nervous chuckle I nodded, "Mhm,"

Pulling me into a tight hug Hinata looked up at me with sparkly eye, "thank you, thank you, _thank you_!"

Prying him off me I tried to calm him down.

As we continued our way to school I explained to him our plan.

We got to school I explained to Hinata that the first thing he should do is go over to the teacher's office and ask- _beg_ Mr. Aoi to retake that English quiz during lunch. While he did that I'd go over his quiz and help him understand and figure out the correct answers.

"Obviously I won't just give you the answers," I informed Hinata as we parked our bikes,

"Of course!" Hinata exclaimed, "I'll pass this test, show my mom and go to the match!"

Finding his grin infectious I grinned back, "Before you go give me your quiz, I want to look over it in homeroom, oh and give your number so I can find you after second period,"

Rattling off his number and handing me his quiz sheet, Hinata rushed off to his morning volleyball practice and I made my way towards the main building.

Going through the familiar routine of slipping off my sneakers and tugging on my school slippers I put any textbooks I didn't need in my small cubicle and made my way to my homeroom.

Waving and mumbling small hellos to my fellow classmates who greeted me when I entered, I ducked and skirted around the groups of students chatting and laughing and slipped into my desk with a sigh.

Placing my bag down, I dug into it and pulled out Hinata's quiz, and began going over it.

It hadn't even been a minute before I felt a massive headache forming.

Slapping the paper down, I clutched my head between my hands, "Ya! Was he even trying to pass this quiz?!"

"Good morning," Two voices chirped causing me to look up,

Nodding back at Mirai and Yachi I gave her a tiny frustrated smile, "Ah, morning you guys."

Settling into their respective seats, Mirai suddenly leaned forward and peered over my shoulder, "Hey Mina, what are you doing?"

"I'm going over Hinata's quiz," I mumbled returning my focus to Hinata's utterly frustrating quiz paper,

"Eh? So I guess this makes you and Yachi love rivals," Mirai said thoughtfully, "you sure do work fast, it was only yesterday that Yachi confessed her feelings towards Hinata to us and you're already trying to claim him as your own by helping him study."

"Ya, stop talking nonsense!" I sputtered while avoiding looking at Yachi who was now giving me a cold look, "I'm not trying to be anyone's love rival. I'm just trying to help Hinata pass his quiz!"

"Huh? What quiz? He's not in our class though," Yachi asked, snapping out of her cold expression.

Pointing to the paper in front of me with a bit of disgust I scowled, "Hinata's mom prohibited him from going to today's practice match against Nekoma High since he failed his quiz yesterday so I suggested that he asked to retake the test and even offered to help me study by looking over his quiz but…but this is just a mess!"

Peering over my shoulders, Mirai and Yachi both sweat dropped when they saw the paper.

"Ha, wow, that's just…bad," Mirai laughed sheepishly,

"Why did he write volleyball as his answer for most of his answers?" Yachi asked pointing at his scribbled hand writing.

Rubbing my hair messily with my hands I let out a low groan, "I have no clue! But I promised him I'd help so I can't give up now!"

"Mhm, spoken like a true love rival," Mirai said nodding her head as if she had just had discovered the secret of the universe's origins.

"Y-Yachi-san, p-please stop looking at me like that," I whimpered weakly when I saw her directing a fiery glare at me.

Making an 'I-got-my-eyes-on-you' motion with her hands, Yachi slipped back into her seat as did the rest of the class when the first bell went off signaling the beginning to first period.

Pulling out my math textbook I stood it upright so it'd shield Hinata's quiz paper and looked like I was following the lesson when in reality I was really just trying not to punch the paper out of frustration.

For the next fifty minutes I pretended appear like I was following the lesson when in reality I had no clue what was going on around me. I mean seriously, an ogre could have charged through on the back of a sparkly unicorn while singing a love ballad at some point during the lesson and I wouldn't have noticed.

There were a few times when Mr. Nakahara had nearly caught me in my little act when he called on me to answer a question or two. Luckily each time I was called on Mirai would whisper the correct answer from behind me.

When the bell finally rang again signaling the end to the first period, I shot a grateful smile at Mirai.

Once again, during second period I repeated my tactic.

I'd pull arrange my textbooks in order to hide what I was really doing so I could I focus on Hinata's disastrous test paper in front of me.

 _How am I supposed to ensure that Hinata passes the makeup quiz when he's so bad at English?_

Letting out a breathless sigh, I settled my chin in my palm and gazed out the window.

 _Maybe he won't be retaking the quiz though._ I thought hopefully before mentally kicking myself.

How could I even think that? Regardless of how bad Hinata was at English I couldn't just take the easy way out and hope that he hadn't convinced his teacher into letting him retake the English quiz.

Just as I was ready to go over his Hinata again I felt my bag vibrate slightly causing the vibration to shoot up the leg that it was leaning on.

Pretending as if I had dropped my pencil onto the floor and was reaching down to retrieve it, I quickly peeked into my school back and saw that the pale blue light of my flip phone was illuminating the inside of my bag.

Darting my eyes around the room I made sure no one was looking before I snatched my phone and pulled it into my lap.

Opening my phone I quietly tapped on my inbox icon and opened the text.

 **Mina-san~! It's me Hinata!** It read, **I talked to Mr. Aoi and he agreed to let me retake the quiz! Thank you X3**

Smiling discretely to myself, I quickly typed back a reply.

 **That's great! But shouldn't you be focusing in class right now instead of texting?**

 **^.^' Yes BUT I wanted to let you know that Mr. Aoi said I should meet him during the second half of lunch to do the quiz . That means we have time to cramp. So where do you want to meet :O:D ?**

Gazing back out the window I pondered for a moment before quickly texting back my answer.

 **How about we just meet near the bike racks?**

A few minutes went by before Hinata finally texted back.

 **:D:D Okay! I'll see you there after second period!**

"Mina, look up the teacher is looking at you," Yachi whispered casting me a brief side long glance.

Quickly stuffing my phone between my thighs I quickly looked up and pretended that I was dutifully jotting down notes.

For the rest of the period, the teacher continued to shoot my suspicious looks, there were even a few times where she had called on me just to see if I was paying attention. Fortunately I was and easily answered her questions which seemed to satisfy her.

When the bell finally rang signaling the end to the period and the beginning of lunch I stood up and stretched my arms over my head,

"Hey Mina-chan," Mirai started reaching in her bag for her lunch, "do you want to have lunch here or go outside?"

"Here's fine," I yawned back, "but first I got to go meet Hinata and help him speed cramp for his test,"

"Oh, he managed to convince the teacher to let him retake the test?" Yachi questioned while picking up her chop sticks,

"Mhm," I nodded, "he's going to do the quiz during the second half of lunch so I better hurry now and meet him."

Snatching Hinata's quiz off the table, I quickly waved my goodbyes to Mirai and Yachi.

Speed walking through the halls, I took the steps two at a time before reaching one of the side exits.

Bursting through the side day I couldn't help but let out a loud and appreciative sigh as the sun's rays hit me.

Noting that I had more than enough time before meeting Hinata at our designated spot, I clasped my hands behind me and slowly made my way across the quad.

As I made my way around the corner, the sudden sounds of a loud cry caught my attention. Looking over my shoulder I stared with a look of disbelief as saw a plain white volleyball crash through the gym's window and soar through the air in an arc,

"Gah, so powerful…" I mumbled, completely transfixed on the volleyball.

"Oi! Watch out!"

Snapping out of my stupor my body began to move instinctively on its own.

 _Hips down, lean slightly forward, arms out, forearms point upwards, swing and-_

Whack!

The ball connected neatly with my arms and popped back into the air with a slight bob.

Catching the ball as I fell back down I couldn't stop myself from grinning.

I had really missed this feeling. The feeling of being able to effortlessly stop the rotation and force of a ball with ease-

"Oh my _god_!" A voice suddenly shrieked causing me to jump up in surprise and drop the ball.

Scrambling to pick up the ball I quickly straightened up only to come face to face with a somewhat short looking girl with short, dark brown hair in the school's standard gym uniform.

Staring at me with her large round light brown eyes and a slightly gaping mouth, I quickly looked down at the ball clutched between my palms and let out a small squeak,

"I'm so sorry, this must be yours!" Bowing quickly I tossed the ball towards the girl.

Still gaping at me as if she was hypnotized the ball merely smacked the girl on the shoulder before falling onto the ground and rolling away,

Sweat dropping, I scratched the back of my head nervously, "ah, sorry about that, I'll just go get-"

"That was _amazing_!" The girl suddenly exclaimed, rushing up to me she looked at me with large sparkly eyes, "how did you do that? Are you a volleyball player? I haven't seen you before- do you want to join the team?"

Taking a step back and shooting her a small sheepish grin I began to stutter,

"I'm sorry I shouldn't be harassing you like this when you don't even know me." She interrupted, bowing forward she straightened up and gave me a broad wide grin, "I'm Yui Michimiya, third year student and captain of Karasuno girls' volleyball club!"

"Uh I'm Mina Hashimoto, I'm only a first year student-"

"No wonder I never saw you before," Michimiya interrupted, throwing her hands onto her hips she looked me over, "you're the right height and build,"

"Eh, right height and build for what?"

"To join the volleyball club!" Michimiya exclaimed as if it was obvious, "the way you stopped the ball was amazing! You completely stopped the rotation and force of it and reduced it to almost nothing!"

"Oh, that? Heh, that was a fluke," I said bashfully,

"That was definitely _not_ a fluke!" she argued pinching her brows together, "I saw how your stance instantly change right before you received the ball- have you ever played volleyball before?"

Gulping, I averted my eyes and stared off into the distance, "eh n-no, m-my older sister taught me how do to that heh,"

"Really?" Michimiya bubbled excitedly, "Does she go here too?"

"No, she's finished her school just last year, she actually works in a beauty parlor now in the city,"

"Oh…" she replied somewhat disappointedly before perking up, "well you look like you'd be more than capable to join the team!"

Grabbing my wrist tightly in her hand, I was surprised with how strong and easily the shorter girl was able to forcibly drag me into the girl's gym with ease despite the fact that I was trying to break freak of her grasp.

"Oi, ladies meet Mina Hashimoto! She's here to join the team!"

"Eh?! Michimiya-san I never said that!" Blushing furiously as about six other girls turned to look at me I tried to duck out of the gym but was once again stopped when Michimiya grabbed my wrist,

"Be nice to her ladies, with the inter-high preliminaries in just two days we need to make sure we mesh well with Mina,"

"W-wait," I stammered, "I never said I was joining the team!"

"But you have to," Michimiya shot back as she turned to face me, "Karasuno High as fallen into obscurity in the past couple years and no one is expecting either of our teams to even place in any of the matches!"

"How is that my problem?" I snapped back growing irritated with her persistent attitude.

"Because you have a talent and you're not even bothering to use it to help your own school when it needs it," Michimiya yelled in a passionate tone. Narrowing her eyes at me I couldn't help but step back in shock and fear when a sudden powerful presence radiated from Michimiya,

"Our school has been nicknamed the flightless crow for the past couple of years but now our school is starting to lose that reputation thanks to the boy's volleyball club! They've been able to beat their rivals in practice matches and are heading to the inter-high preliminary tournament," clutching the front of her top tightly, Michimiya stared me down, "but we can't have everyone thinking it's just the boy's team who are trying to regain their title! The girls need to work just as hard and when someone like you who shows true talent refuses it's a slap to the face to everyone!"

Stepping back I shook my head, "I-I told you, that was just a fluke! I never even played volleyball before."

Turning to nod at one of the girls lined up across from us, the girl suddenly tossed a ball up and then spiked it towards me.

Once again, body moving instinctively I dropped into position and easily stopped it.

"So was that a fluke too?" Michimiya asked smugly when I had suddenly realized that I had proved her right.

"N-no but-"

"Then you have to join!" she urged almost desperately,

"No!"

Clenching the ball tightly between my palms I squeezed my eyes shut.

I had made up my mind years ago. I was never going to play volleyball again- _ever._

Tossing the ball harshly to the side I kept my eyes close and urged my body to stop trembling.

I knew that I was never going to play volleyball again so why did my body feel so light, so happy- so _free_ when I had received the ball?

"Mina-san," Michimiya started,

"No, I said I would never play again…" I trailed off my voice cracking, "You don't need to know why so don't bother asking. I'm sorry if I'm being rude but I-I can't join the team."

Opening my eyes again I was once again taken aback by Michimiya's intense gaze and aura.

"Fine, I won't ask why but at least let me make a deal."

"What kind of deal?" I asked hesitantly,

Taking a step forward, Michimiya pointed at me and smirked, "if we win our first match in the inter-high preliminary match then you _have_ to join the team but if we lose then I'll never bother you again.

Casting glance at the other girls I studied them carefully.

They didn't have the same spark as Michimiya had in her eyes. In fact they looked embarrassed with their captain's dramatic attempts to get me to join the team.

This didn't look like a winning team.

They were going to lose.

Looking back at Michimiya I grabbed her hand confidently in mine and smirked, "deal."

As we continued to shake hands and smirk at each other I suddenly remembered something.

"Hinata!" I exclaimed, eyes widening I dashed towards the exit, "sorry but I have to go!"

"That's fine but make sure to come to the match on Saturday! I wouldn't want you to miss our win!" Michimiya called after me.

Sprinting towards the spot where I had agreed to meet Hinata I let out a sigh of relief when I noticed that he was still there.

"Hinata!"

"Mina!" Hinata yelled back in an exasperated tone, " _Where_ were _you_?"

"Sorry, I got tied up," I panted as I hunched over with my hands on my knees, "but I'm here now so don't worry!"

"Don't worry? Don't worry?" Hinata repeated hysterically, "How can you say that I have less than a minute to retake this test and you haven't even helped me cramp yet!"

 _Crap._

Ignoring Hinata's hysterically shrill shrieks, I quickly grabbed his arm and dragged him to his class, "okay I know I said I wouldn't just give you the answer but since we don't have time to study I will."

"But how?" Hinata sobbed dramatically, "we literally don't have _any_ time!"

"How good are you at charades?" I asked spinning on my heels to face him.

"Uh pretty good why?" He asked looking confused.

"Just make sure to sit somewhere you'll be able to look out the window without being caught."

"Huh? What?"

Without bothering to wait and explain Hinata my plan, I shoved him into the room and dashed outside.

Reaching a window that faced Hinata's class, I peered in discretely and watched as Hinata who was shaking like a leaf in a middle of a hurricane greeted Mr. Aoi, take his quiz and wander towards the back of the class.

Tapping the window lightly, Hinata looked up and made a look of horror and surprise.

Gesturing to him to remain calm and not to draw Mr. Aoi's attention I mouthed to him that I'd act out the answers to the quiz.

Luckily for me, I had been able to memorize every single detail of Hinata's quiz and knew all the correct answers.

Ignoring the weird stares I got from various students who strolled by I acted out each answer to the quiz. There were a few times where Hinata looked completely clueless before jotting down his answer but for the most part him seemed to understand what I was trying to tell him.

Ten painfully long minutes later, Hinata finally stood up and made his way to Mr. Aoi who drew out a red pen and began marking the paper.

Before I could even wait for Hinata to tell me what he had gotten the lunch bell went off signaling the beginning to the last period.

Pushing away from my spot beneath the window I hurried to gym class and tried to push my anxieties away.

Unfortunately, for the next fifty minutes all I could think about was whether or not Hinata had passed his quiz. I was so immersed in my thoughts that I didn't even react when the soccer ball was kicked square in my face or when Yachi and Mirai repeatedly screamed at me to respond after they asked me if I had a concussion.

As soon as class was over I immediately rushed to the club room units and looked for Hinata.

Just as I was about to leave the area and elsewhere, two arms wrapped around my shoulders and pulled into a tight and fierce hug,

" _Mina-chan~!"_

"Hinata? Oh my god, I was looking everywhere for you! How did you do?"

Whipping out his paper and showing me a giant 60 that was circled in red my eyes widen before I pulled Hinata back into a tight hug, "You did it!"

"Heh, I did! There were a few things you did that I didn't understand so I guessed but even then I managed to get a few of them right!" Laughing sheepishly, he rubbed the back of his head,

"I'm so happy for you," I beamed, "does this mean you are going to your practice match?"

"Mhm," he grinned, "I called my mom and she said it was alright to go seeing as how I had taken initiative and demonstrated that I care about my marks. Thanks again for helping me,"

"Heh, No prob-"

"But I'm still mad at you," Hinata said with a pouty look.

Sweat dropping at his childish antic I chuckled, "I'm sorry,"

"I'm still mad."

"Eh? What do I have to do to make it up to you?"

Pausing for a moment and thinking, Hinata suddenly smiled at me, "you have to come to our game on Saturday and cheer us on!"

Laughing at his request I nodded, "okay fine, I'll come and be your team's personal cheerleader!"

"Awesome!" Hinata cheered, "I better go now, I need to get my uniform and meet the others, I'll see you tomorrow!"

Running off to the club room I quickly called after him, "Hinata!"

Turning around to meet my gaze, I smiled brightly at him "make sure you win against Nekoma today okay Hinata-kun?"

Blushing slightly, Hinata shot me a determined look and nodded, "Mhm, we'll win for sure!"

* * *

 _Tell me what you think about the story so far and review!_


	5. Chapter 5

"To go…or not to go, that is the question..."

Staring at my ceiling from my bed, I mauled the question over and over again.

It was finally Saturday, the first day of the inter-high preliminary volleyball matches.

The day I promised both Hinata and Michimiya that I would watch their games.

Their matches started in less than an hour.

I didn't want to go.

"Oi, Shakespeare, are you going to just lie there or are you actually going to get dressed?" Emi asked as she walked by room with a load of dirty laundry in her arms.

"I'm trying to figure that out," I replied with a frown.

Poking her head in my room, Emi raised a thin, brown eyebrow, "from what you told me, you don't have a choice, you already promised two people that you'd watch the games. They're expecting you there, you'll look like a giant, infected a-hole if you _don't_ go. Besides, didn't you tell Mirai and Yachi you'd meet them at the train station? They are probably waiting for you right now."

Sitting upright I threw my face in my hands and let out a wail, "I know, I _know_ but I wasn't really thinking when I promised both of them about going to their matches!"

"What's there to think about?" Emi asked as she stepped into full frame, "you said you'd go so go, now get off your bed so I can wash those sheets,"

Rolling onto the floor, Emi shot me a 'I'm-not-impressed-with-you-right-now' look as she started to pull the sheets off my bed,

"I'm scared," I whispered, "I'm scared people will recognize me,

Softening her expression, Emi nudged me with her foot, "what are the chances of that happening? You're not that popular anyways,"

Sitting upright, I shot her a glare " _ya_ , are you trying to make me feel better or worse?"

Laughing Emi shrugged, "I'm just saying, no one but Mirai has even recognized you so from what I can tell you're not very well known out here. Besides, I've been living here for _two_ wholeyears and no one has even recognized me!"

As much as I hated to admit it, Emi was right. I had managed to go to school without having my secret blown despite having two volleyball clubs there. So what were the chances of someone randomly recognizing me at a tournament?

Besides, if Emi could live here for two whole years without someone recognizing me then I was worrying way too much over nothing.

Slowly smiling, I stood up, "for someone who's not really good with her words you sure know how to make me feel better,"

Scoffing at me, Emi rolled her mint green eyes, "ya, just get dressed already, I'm starting a load of lights so I need your PJs."

Quickly stripping out of my PJs and tossing them at Emi, I flipped through my closet and decided on a simple black lace detailed romper and plain brown sandals.

Changing into my outfit, I sectioned off my hair and styled it into two braided pigtails before throwing on a brown sun what and grabbing a small shoulder purse.

Ignoring Emi's cries for me to let me do my makeup, I swiped on some lip gloss, rushed outside and hopped on my bike.

Pedaling furiously, I urged my legs to go faster. I had to get to the city metro station before Mirai and Yachi left without me.

Luckily for me, the metro station was only a few minutes away from our school which meant that if I continued pedaling at this ridiculously fast speed then I could get there in about twenty minutes.

Nearly 20 minutes later, I pulled up to the station in a sweaty mess.

Parking my bike, I quickly hopped off and ran into the station.

The place was crowded. For a moment I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find Mirai and Yachi but luckily for me I easily spotted the two leaning against a far wall and chatting.

"Ah, finally!" Mirai pouted when she saw me coming up to them, "for a minute there I thought you weren't going to show up,"

"Mhm," Yachi added with a small smile, "Mirai-chan kept insisting that we leave so she could get some pre-game pictures of Yamaguchi-san,"

Letting out a squeak and pointing at Yachi accusingly, Mirai narrowed her dark blue eyes, "I said no such thing!"

Giggling, I scratched the bag of my head, "sorry for taking so long. For a minute I wasn't sure if I wanted to go but my big sister changed my mind, so let's go and get some pre-game pictures of Yamaguchi-san!"

Ignoring the squawk of embarrassment Mirai let out, I looped my arms with Yachi and Mirai and started for the train.

Making our way to the train platform we were lucky enough to reach it just as the trained pulled up. As we entered the train we noticed quite a few open seats and decided to take the ones closest to the doors.

For the rest of the trip we studied the map and tried to figure out where to get off. Fortunately, Yachi assured us that she had taken the train by herself plenty of times to that area in the past and that she would know when to get off.

And as she promised in less than twenty minutes the three of us were standing outside of the wide open court of the inter-high volleyball tournament.

"Wah! This place is so huge!" I gasped,

Looking around, I couldn't believe how many schools had attended the tournament. If I hadn't known any better I would have thought we were at a circus.

Parked all around the block were large tour buses and even a few TV crew vans.

There must have been at least three hundred students- both teams and supporters mulling about on the lawn while various PA systems blasted some upbeat music through their speakers.

"We should have brought something to hold and cheer with," Mirai shouted over the sound of the music and chatter, following her gaze I noticed that nearly all the supporters around us were carrying either encouraging posters for their respective schools or some type noise makers,

Looking over at Yachi I let out a sheepish laugh, "I'm guessing you didn't bring any kind of noise maker in that tiny bag of yours did you?"

Shrugging and pulling out a tiny silver whistle from her purse, Yachi sweat dropped, "Uh, does this count?"

"I'm pretty sure that's a self defense whistle," Mirai pointed out as she peered over my shoulder,

"Never mind, maybe we can by something inside the building over there," Pointing towards a building where all the teams and supported seemed to be heading to, the girls nodded in agreement.

Ducking and weaving through the large throngs of student proved to be more than difficult. There was a few times where we thought we lost tiny Yachi but managed to quickly spot her small pony tail and bright star clip in the crowd.

When we finally made it into the building I couldn't help but let out a loud appreciative sound, "ah, it's so cool in here!"

"Mhm," Mirai agreed, rubbing away some sweat from her forehead with the back of her arm, "the AC is amazing in here,"

"S-so many tall guys," Yachi sputtered looking scared,

Laughing slightly I patted her on the back, "Don't be so scared! No one is going to hurt you!"

Nodding slowly at me, I took it upon myself to loop my arm with Yachi just in case she got lost or fainted.

Treading more carefully through the crowded venue, Mirai kept an eye out for any vendor selling some noisemakers while I kept an eye out for Hinata and Michimiya.

"How hard is it to find someone with bright orange hair in here," I complained after five minutes of aimlessly wandering and dragging a semi-paralyzed Yachi around,

"Almost as hard as finding a stupid vendor in a crowded event," Mirai grunted back, looking just as frustrated as I did.

"Hey, who's that?!" A sudden deep voice called from somewhere to our left.

Without thinking, Mirai and I whipped our heads to the side and noticed two averaged height volleyball players in burgundy uniforms pointing somewhere off into the distance,

Following their pointed fingers, I let out a surprised gasp, "Hey! It's the Karasuno boys' volleyball team!"

"Hey, do you know them?" one of the boys asked looking over at us,

"Sure do," Mirai said puffing her chest,

"I thought you see you knew _of_ them," I teased with a small smirk.

Completely ignoring my taunt, Mirai wiggled past me and stood in front of the boys, "that's the Karasuno's boy volleyball club,"

Studying the boys from a distance, one of them looked back at Mirai, "who's the tall scary looking guy with the bun?"

"Ah," Mirai hummed nodding her head with a smirk, "that's Karasuno's Azumane,"

Hunching forward in a sudden movement, I sweat dropped as I realized that Asahi must have heard Mirai say his name in a dark and sinister voice.

"A-Azumane?" the boys and Yachi repeated both looking a little pale,

"Mhm, apparently he's a total bad boy." Mirai explained folding her arms, "rumors are that he had his underlings beat up some guy from Kitakou. There are also rumors that he's into selling some pretty dangerous stuff on the street if you catch my drift,"

Looking back at Asahi, I let a skeptical look settle on my face when I noticed that he was now facing Daichi and Suga with a tear-filled eyes,

"Mina-chan we need to leave before he kills us!" Yachi exclaimed hysterically,

"Eh…are you sure about that?" I asked, ignoring the blonde completely, "he looks like he heard us and looks like he's about to burst into tears…"

"Those are just tears of rage," Mirai responded, looking back at the boys she pointed at them, "but you guys need to focus on Karasuno's genius setter also known as the king of the court- Kageyama!"

Without any warning, Kageyama suddenly whipped his head in our direction and scowled.

"H-he's terrifying," Yachi squeaked cowering behind me,

"Oi, Kageyama-kun what are you glaring at?" Hinata's asked, following the moody setter's gaze, Hinata let out a loud whoop and sprinted towards me,

"Mina-chan! You came!"

Pulling me into a tight and fierce hug I squeezed him back, "I did promise you didn't I?

"Hey, who are you two?"

Pointing at Mirai and Yachi I introduced the two, "This is Mirai and that's Yachi, they are here to cheer you guys on too,"

"Ah really?!" letting me go, Hinata quickly grabbed and clasped Yachi's trembling hands between his own, "thank you so much!"

Turning beet red, I was scared for a moment that Yachi would faint right there,

"Hey, Hinata who are you talking to?" Daichi asked as he and the rest of the team strolled up to us.

"G-g-g-girls! _Cute_ girls!" Tanaka and Nishinoya stuttered in perfect unison,

"Oh, this is Mina and those two are Mirai and Yachi" Hinata explained excitedly, "they are here to cheer us on!"

Throwing his face dramatically in the inside crook of his elbow, Tanaka let out a loud, wet, ugly sob, "My prayers have been answered! All I wanted was a couple of cute girls to come up to us and say do your best Tanaka-kun and it happened!"

Nodding in agreement and letting out an equally as loud, wet and uglier sob, Nishinoya clapped his hands together, "you girls have given us the fighting spirit we needed to continue on- with the three of you and Kiyoko's other worldly beauty we will definitely win the tournament!"

Karate chopping both boys on the head, Suga shot us an easy grin, "sorry about these two, they have suffered a minor stroke on the bus ride here,"

"More like a minor stroke caused by their beauty!" Tanaka sang happily and receiving yet another swift chop to the head from Suga,

"Sorry about these two," Daichi chuckled, "they are just a little…strange,"

"That's one way of explaining it." Tsukishima mumbled pushing up his glasses further up the bridge of his nose,

"That's fine! But I'm here to support Yamaguchi-kun-oof!" Mirai squealed as she started to leap towards Yamaguchi but then let out a grunt when I gave her a similar chop as Suga did to her side,

"Eh, sorry about _her_ " I sweat dropped,

"Hey Mina-chan, where's your cheering stuff?" Hinata asked curiously as he looked us over,

Opening my mouth to say something, the sound of a sliding door snapping open caused all of us to immediately turn around and gape at the players who walked in.

"Those cannot be high school players," Mirai mumbled with wide eyes.

Almost instantly, the team who had walked in turned and faced us, smirked and made their way over.

Taking cover behind Daichi, Suga and Asahi, Mirai and Yachi hid behind me and peered up fearful as the two teams stared each other down.

"He doesn't have eye brows," Yachi moaned in a terrified tone as she pointed to a tall guy pointing and staring down Asahi.

"Hey, it smells like Salonpas!" Hinata suddenly exclaimed,

Sniffing the hair tentatively, Kageyama scrunched his brows together, "what-"

Sniffing the hair, Nishinoya nodded, "it does doesn't it?"

"Uh, are we just going to all ignore the fact that Mr. Brow-less there is aggressively undressing Asahi with his creep soulless eyes?" Mirai whispered covering her mouth to be more discrete.

Nudging her in the side again, I poked Suga, "do you guys knows these people?"

"Mhm," he nodded not breaking his gaze with the opposing team, "that's Datekou Gyou. We faced them last year and they completely shut out our Ace Asahi in the match and caused him to quit the club temporarily,"

"But now he's back and we plan on winning," Daichi added with a smirk,

Directing our gaze over at Asahi, I was taken aback by his fierce and unwavering glare. Despite being pointed at by Mr. Brow-less Asahi didn't look scared,in fact he looked ready to rumble.

 _Whoa…maybe he is a total bad-boy!_ I thought with tiny hearts dancing in my head.

"Ya, ya, _ya_!" A boy suddenly yelled, pushing past his team members, a boy reached towards Mr. Brow-less and tried to force his arms down while looking directly at Daichi, "I'm so sorry about this, I'm Moniwa Kaname, third year student at Datekou and Gyou and captain of the team- I'm really sorry about this!"

"That's alright," Daichi answered with an easy smile, "I guess he remembers us from last year?"

"Heh, kind of," Moniwa replied, "Aone kind of has this weird habit of locking onto other team's aces. But I certainly remember you guys, some new faces but either way please be prepared for us this time."

 _Who does this guy think he is?_ I thought narrowing my eyes as Moniwa dragged Aone away.

"Ah!" Yachi let out breathlessly, "I thought he was going to kill us!"

"Mhm, that was a bit jarring," Suga agreed, "but good job at not averting your-"

Stopping mid sentence everyone sweat dropped as we noticed Asahi sweating profusely and trembling with a blank look on his face.

 _Never mind, he's just healthy tough looking third year student with a heart of glass._ I thought, tiny hearts quickly fading away in my mind.

"I-I'm n-nervous now," Asahi stuttered,

"I thought you said he was a bad-boy," I said raising a brow at Mirai,

Shrugging she crossed her arms and eyed him suspiciously, "I thought he was too,"

"Ya, Asahi why're you so weak off the court?!" Nishinoya snapped, "You have the girls thinking we are a push over!"

Sweat dropping as the two continued to bicker; I looked over at the clock and then back to Hinata, "hey doesn't your first match start soon?"

"Yeah we better go now," Hinata responded suddenly looking kind of nervous, "are you guys going upstairs now?"

"Um I kind of promised someone else I'd watch their game first but I'm sure Yachi and Mirai will make so much noise you'd think there is three of us!"

"Great, more noisy people," Tsukishima groaned pressing his long fingers to his temples.

"Mhm, she's right," Mirai agreed looking fired up while shooting a brief glare to the tall blond, "c'mon Yachi, let's go find some good seats!"

Wishing good luck to the team and waving bye to the girls, I dashed outside and headed towards the building next to us.

Luckily for me the girl's games haven't started yet but it seemed like all the teams were already getting ready and hyping themselves in spare classrooms.

Taking the steps two at a time I headed towards the balcony area and managed to find a spot looking directly over the Karasuno's girls match.

Just as I settled myself into an empty seat, a loud voice on the PA systems announced the two teams' names and called them to the floor.

Bouncing slightly in my seat, I could help but feel kind of giddy.

Although we didn't necessarily have the same kind of set up back in America for volleyball it still reminded of the games I use to play.

"Go Karasuno!" I cheered cupping my hands around my mouth to make sure they could hear me.

Looking up from the line up, Michimiya first looked, surprised then relieved and then happy to see me. Giving me a quick wave, Michimiya quickly returned her focus to the game at hand and bowed once the referee announced the game was officially starting.

Even though I knew the girls' victory would mean I had to join the team, I couldn't stop myself for wanting them to win.

Letting out a loud cheer and standing up as the Karasuno and Shiratori settled into their respective positions I readied myself for a fierce and exciting battle…

Except it wasn't,

It was anything but fierce or exciting- if anything it was awkward and painful to watch.

"Don't mind, don't mind!" I yelled as Michimiya dived and failed to receive yet _another_ ball thus making the score 8: Karasuno and 18: Shiratori.

Cracking my knuckles nervously I urged myself to restrain from screaming profanities at the Karasuno girls team.

 _What was wrong with them?_ I thought angrily, _they're not trying as hard as Michimiya!_

Another whistle, the score was now 8:19.

I sat down.

8:20

The rest of the period went by quickly. At some point Shiratori must have figured out that Karasuno's right wing spiker was completely incapable of neatly receiving the ball and had directed the rest of their serves towards her. It was a low blow but it was also a smart one.

Shiratori cleaned up their first match in a little over than twenty minutes with a score of 0:2 in the two set match.

Watching as some of the girls from Karasuno crumpled to the floor, I watched sympathetically as Michimiya gestured to the girls to smile and patted them on the back.

She was trying to keep it together; she didn't want her team to know what she was really feeling.

Drawing my lower lip between my teeth I chewed on it anxiously.

I could tell Michimiya was doing everything possible to not look up where I was sitting.

She was embarrassed, horrified and defeated.

I guess I wasn't joining the team.

Clapping along with the crowd, I didn't join in when people around me yelled out 'good game' in a meaningless attempt to ease the sting of defeat for Karasuno's girls' volleyball club.

There was no point in saying something as thoughtless and useless as 'good game' when all the losing team was thinking was what would have happened if they had received, tossed or even spiked a little higher, stronger, faster _._

Deciding against catching up with Michimiya for now I made my way to the boy's match and managed to find Yachi and Mirai.

"Hey," I called as I stood next to Mirai,

"Oh my god these guys are freaking _amazing_!" Mirai gushed, "They are coming at Datekou Gyou with all these _whoosh_ and _pows_!"

"And Hinata and Kageyama have got the other team scared silly with their freak quicks!" Yachi added looking just as excited, "who knew they were this good?"

"Yeah but let's admit that the real star down there is Yamaguchi!" Mirai squealed,

Looking down at the court I pointed at the green haired boy, "uh…isn't he on the sidelines? "

"Yes but isn't he doing it so stylishly?!" Mirai squealed again.

Sweat dropping at her, I returned my gaze to the match in front of me.

And just as Mirai and Yachi said the game was simply _amazing_.

Even though I wasn't playing, my heart was pounding madly in my chest and I could feel myself running out of breath as I cheered alongside the crowd when Tanaka slammed the ball down quickly between the Datekou Gyou's libero and left wing spiker.

"Here it comes!" Mirai whooped excited as Kageyama tossed and set the ball while Hinata rushed towards the ball then leaped with his hand raised out high and then-

 _Smack!_

The ball whizzed right by the blockers and collided with a thunderous sound against the floor.

 _W-what was that?!_ I thought gaping at Hinata who was now running in circles cheering,

"Ah, Daichi did mention that the first years were something different,"

"Michimiya-san!" walked over to her side I looked around, "where are the others?"

"Eh, they wanted to go home…"

"Oh, uh are you going to stay?"

"Mhm," Nodding with a small smile she shrugged, "I want to see how the guys are doing,"

"Ah! They did it again! You _just_ missed it!" Mirai cheered pointing at Hinata, "that guy might be short but he can definitely jump!"

Nodding in agreement, we cheered while listening to Mirai's fill us in on what we missed. By the time Mirai reached the end of the story the score was now 24: Karasuno, 19: Datekou Gyou.

"Ah, they are so close!" Yachi whispered anxiously,

"They just need one more point," Michimiya added clenching her fist tightly.

Gripping the railing tightly I leaned over the edge and bounced on my toes, "c'mon Karasuno!"

Looking up, Hinata gave me two thumbs then quickly rushed back to his spot as Daichi yelled at everyone to get ready for Tanaka's serve.

Taking a collective deep breath, we watched in anticipation as the ball neatly sailed over the net and the other team received the ball.

Setting up the toss, the opposing team quickly followed up with a powerful spike that Nishinoya rolled and quickly saved allowing for Tanaka to receive and for Kageyama to set, toss and-

 _Smack!_

Hinata slammed one of their ridiculously fast freak quicks across the net.

"Yes!" Mirai, Yachi and I cheered.

"Hold on girls they haven't scored that point yet," Michimiya said pointing at the court.

Following her finger we all let out a gasp,

"Ya, they were so close!" I grumbled feeling my body coil up again when I watched as the opposing team shut down the powerful quick.

"C'mon Karasuno!" Mirai yelled.

"Get ready guys!" Daichi shouted over the roar of the crowd, "We can finish this!"

Letting out a loud roar, Tanaka ran, skipped and jumped and spiked the ball with everything he had.

However, the other team wasn't about to let Karasuno get the point easily.

Blocking the ball with their iron wall defense, Nishinoya scrambled, rolled and popped the ball back into the air.

"Chance ball!" Daichi yelled gesturing the other players to spread out, bumping the ball back into the air, Kageyama quickly ran to the ball and tossed it up in the air,

"Are they going to right another freak quick?" Yachi asked darting his eyes across the court as if she was trying to see into the future.

Chewing anxiously on my lower lip, I clenched my fist tightly.

 _Were they going to do it? Would it work this time?_

"Oh crap…" Michimiya suddenly mumbled, turning to face her we all noticed a small smile gracing her lips,

Directing our attention before it was too late, we all let out wild, loud cheers as we saw Asahi sprinting towards the ball.

First he ran, skipped, _jump-_

And with a fierce and ferocious roar, Asahi swung his arm in a wide arc and connected the palm of his hands with the ball and-

 _ **Whack!**_

In that moment it was like watching a bullet being released from a gun in slow motion.

Even with the efforts of Aone and the rest of his team jumping into their famous iron wall defense the ball soared right over wide hands, barely grazing their finger tips and slamming merely a centimeter away from their libero who made a desperate slid to save the ball.

They had done it.

Leaping and screaming, the four of us must have been a hilarious sight to see as we whooped and danced.

Blowing the whistle, the referee gestured at Karasuno thus signaling their point as well as the end of the match.

After cheering and do-si-do-ing for a minute or two, the four of us scrambled out of the balcony area and dashed down stairs,

"Hinata-kun!" Not even bothering to slow down, I tackled the orange head to the floor and violent shook his shoulders, "Ya! Why didn't you ever say you were _amazing_!?"

"M-Min-chan you're hurting me!" Hinata gasped dramatically.

"Great job Daichi," Michimiya called as she caught up to me, punching the male captain in the arm she grinned "you finally beat Datekou Gyou!"

"Heh, it's all thanks to this big fellow right here!" Nishinoya bellowed punching Asahi in the stomach,

"Tsk, more like thanks to my sets," Kageyama hissed,

"Hey I helped!" Hinata complained as I got off him and helped him up,

"You guys were just amazing!" I exclaimed,

"Obviously," Tsukki mumbled and Yamaguchi to nod.

"Huh? Hold on," Michimiya suddenly said while digging into her sports' bag,

"What is it?" Asahi asked,

Without responding, Michimiya flipped open her phone and brought it to her ear, "hello…uh huh…yes...pardon…are you sure…okay, one minute," Pulling the phone away from her ear, she held the phone out in front of her and pressed the speaker button.

"Hello? Ms. Michimiya, are you there?" a voice crackled on the other end, gathering around the phone we all peered curiously at the phone.

"Yes, I'm still here, you are on speaker," she responded,

"Mhm, well Ms. Michimiya I just wanted to inform you that Shiratori girls' volleyball team has been disqualified-"

"What?!" I yelled, receiving 'hush-we-want-to-know-what-happened' looks from everyone around me, I quickly mumbled an apology and covered my mouth.

"Eh, as I was saying Shiratori's girls' volleyball team has been disqualified-"

"Why?!" Michimiya interrupted,

"For…confidential reasons," the man replied vaguely,

"Probably for drugs, it's always drugs." Mirai whispered-yelled earning a nod of 'of course!' from Tanaka and causing the rest of us to sweat drop.

"Ahem, the specifics regarding their disqualification cannot be freely disclosed; however, on behalf of the tournament committee I'd like to personally inform you that Karasuno girls' volleyball club has had their lost removed and will be advancing to the next match in the upcoming week."

"T-thank you," Michimiya whispered in what had to be disbelief,

"No need to thank me Ms. Michimiya but have a nice day and good luck in the upcoming match."

Hitting the end call button and flipping her phone shut, Michimiya stared blankly at her phone as if it was a foreign object.

"Eh, Michimiya-chan?" Daichi said slowly, "are you okay?"

"The girls…they quit the team…I don't have a team but…we made it," Michimiya finally said, her voice cracking and heavy with emotions, "we did it,"

"Technically you didn't-oof!" Mirai started only to receive a sharp elbow to the stomach by Yachi,

Looking up at me with an intense gaze Michimiya opened her mouth, "but that means you are on the team which means there is still hope!"

"You can count me and Yachi in, we don't play a lick of volleyball but we have a week to figure that out," Mirai groaned clutching her stomach,

"Wait-" I started to protest only to be drowned by the voices of everyone talking excitedly at once.

Just as I took in a deep breath to yell, a loud cocky voice interrupted me.

"Oi, Tobio-kun!"

Somewhere in the pit of my stomach I felt something rumble.

Turning around just as everyone else did, I spotted a tall and _painfully_ attractive boy in a white and turquoise stripped uniform making his way towards us with an off putting broad and cocky smile.

Running a hand through his chocolate-brown upward swept hair, the mysterious boy's eyes suddenly flickered to me and widen.

His Wide chocolate brown eyes...His wide haunted chocolate brown eyes... His wide chocolate brown haunted _Mirai_ inspired _crazed_ eyes.

 _Oh no, it's happening again. You said this wouldn't happen Emi-baka!_

Trying to discretely duck behind Suga and Daichi, I couldn't help but freeze up when six horror-stricken words tumbled out of the mysterious boy's mouth,

"Is that _Michelle_ freaking _Mina Hashimoto!?"_

* * *

 _A/N: I was kind of struggling to write the volleyball game out. I think it turned out fine though but if anyone knows any helpful terminology other than 'bump' or 'popped' to describe the ball being in received then please leave a comment with those words!_


	6. Chapter 6

It was Monday morning and I was stuck sitting here in the middle of some stupid math exam.

This was certainly not what I wanted to be doing on a Monday morning,

Especially not what happened after the inter-high preliminary volleyball tournament on Saturday.

Letting out a small sigh, I pushed my test aside and put my chin in my hand. Twirling my pencil absent mindedly between my thumb and index finger I stared out the window.

Saturday had been nothing more short of a train wreck- if anything it had _actually_ been a train wreck.

Within only a few minutes of meeting that painfully attractive a-hole- Toru Oikawa, my secret had been revealed and I was nearly trampled to death my other volleyball players as well as TV crews who gathered around to see if in fact Michelle Mina Hashimoto had indeed crawled out from whatever goddamn hole she had thrown herself for the last three years and had finally decided to reveal her face to the world again.

Dropping my pencil, I let out a frustrated and muffle groan as I buried my face in my hands.

"Ms. Hashimoto, are you alright?"

Whipping my head up, I looked up and smiled a sheepish grin at Mr. Nakahara who was staring at me with a stern yet concerned look,

Nodding silently, I merely mouthed a sorry which Mr. Nakahara acknowledged and then began moving up the aisle to resume his rounds of the class.

Picking up my pencil again, I looked over my test and urged myself to focus on the exam.

Nearly thirty minutes had gone by and I was still stuck on question number one.

It wasn't like the exam was extremely hard or anything, in fact the first question was some stupid problem about some girl Sally trying to figure out which of the three trains she should take to reach her destination in the least amount of time.

Even without writing out the solution I knew the answer was clearly 'Train C'.

But with my mind jumping back to Saturday's events I couldn't focus long enough to write out my solution let alone move onto the other twenty-nine questions.

Throwing down my pencil yet again, I cracked my knuckles and licked my lips.

It was official, I couldn't focus.

Shooting a sidelong glance, I peered over at Yachi.

As expected, the blonde was dutifully focusing on her exam and just by looking at her I could tell that she was probably stuck on the second to last question and was getting a little annoyed.

Almost as if she could tell someone was looking at her, Yachi raised her large light brown eyes and looked over at me.

Almost instantly, a bright red blush bloomed on her face causing her to let out a soundless yelp and shy away from my gaze.

Pouting slightly I couldn't help but feel annoyed.

Since Saturday Yachi had been treating me differently, in fact everyone in school seemed to be treating my differently- even _Hinata_ was treating me differently!

The only person who wasn't treating me differently was Mirai. Then again, I guess I could say she was. If anything she was now treating me like some giant, shiny trophy and would foam at the mouth and snarl if anyone even so much as looked at me.

Sighing again, I decided that I needed a good couple minutes to clear my head and reflect on what happened on Saturday before focusing on the exam.

Like I said, it was all Toru Oikawa's fault.

After the beautiful dumbass had yelled my name, everyone within a thirty foot radius of me had whipped their head in my general direction.

And me being a complete dummy had not even bothered to take the opportunity that the gods had clearly given me and leap straight out of an open window which was conveniently wide open and _literally_ right next to me.

Instead I had stood there, like a deer caught in the headlights and had stared wide eyed and flushed as the beautiful dumbass had taken a few shaky steps towards me, stroked my face with a trembling hand and let out what I have to admit to this very day was the ugliest sob I have ever heard.

Obviously, what he had done was very out of character because no more after thirty seconds the Karasuno boy volleyball team had let out loud and hysterical yells of confusion.

"Do you know him Mina-chan!?" I remembered Hinata yelling hysterically as I stared frozen at Oikawa's handsome face twisted in some mangled, tear-filled expression.

Letting out a sound of anger and horror, Oikawa had shoved Hinata to the side and wrapped his arms around me while glaring down at the understandably confused orange head, "how dare you touch someone as pure and amazing as Mina-sama!"

" _Mina-sama_?!" Everyone had echoed looking even more confused as Oikawa began petting my head softly almost as if he couldn't believe that I was literally just standing there,

"How could you be standing next to someone as great and godly as Mina-sama and not even know?!" Oikawa hissed darkly before looking up at me with sparkling eyes, "I can't believe it's really you, you're my hero!"

Now this must have definitely been out of character for him because at that point the boys were now just staring with either blank or horrified looks at this guy.

"That's what I was thinking!" Mirai chirped- thinking that of all that possible times this was the most appropriate time to unleash her inner fan-girl, "how could they not know that they are literally breathing the same air as Michelle Mina Hashimoto, third daughter of Daisuke and Helena Hashimoto and weighs 56.25kg and is 172.72cm-"

"Ranked fifth overall in the international division for women's volleyball championships and received honorary junior international title for best setter in her division at the age of thirteen!" Oikawa and Mirai recited together completely ignoring my horrified expression.

For a moment I remembered that no one had said anything- except for Mirai and Oikawa who were excitedly swapping facts about myself back and forth between themselves completely ignoring the fact that I was standing between the two.

And then as if something had finally clicked within those around us and I was nearly trampled to death.

I remember hearing the shouts and cries of fan-boys and fan-girls rushing towards me, their sweaty hands stretched out in front of them as the dashed forwards to touch me.

I also remember Hinata's brown eyes stretching even wider and peering up at me with a mix of awe and something else that looked eerily similar to worship.

Without warning, Kageyama had grabbed my shoulder and stared me down with a dark, blank expression and muttered something along the lines of 'teach me your secrets' under his breath over and over again.

As three TV crews barreled full speed towards me I finally found myself able to move again.

Quickly stepping back I didn't hesitate to shove Kageyama away from me before diving head first out the window next to me.

After running all the way to the train station I had somehow managed to lose the stampede of volleyball players and TV crews who had followed me and had grabbed the train home.

When I got home I had immediately powered down my phone, pried the battery out and had tossed it somewhere in my room and had remained curled in fetal position in my head for two whole days.

I _had_ been planning to skip school today out of nerves but Emi who had been anything but gentle and had all but chucked me out of the house while ranting about how I was overly exaggerating the situation and come Monday morning no one would even remember me let alone what was said about me.

And as I lied there in the dirt, messily dressed- looking as if I had been mugged I tried to think optimistically.

I thought Emi could be right.

Maybe no one had actually gotten a good look at me after all I had been surrounded by Hinata and his friends.

Maybe I'd be lucky and people would mistake Yachi or even Mirai as me and would take _their_ picture instead of mine.

Maybe no one had actually snapped a picture at all.

Maybe there wasn't some article titled _'Michelle Mina Hashimoto- former professional volleyball player for the U.S.A junior division spotted in inter-high preliminary tournament in Miyagi Japan having her face stroked by a painfully attractive young man.'_

Maybe Hana _wouldn't_ find out that I was in Miyagi Japan having my face stroked by some painfully attractive young man.

Maybe I was safe!

I was wrong.

Even before arriving to school I knew I was wrong.

As I biked to school I didn't see Hinata which was unusual since I knew for a fact that he always left around this time.

When I arrived to school I wasn't greeted by the usual lazy, cheerful greetings of my classmates and teachers.

Instead everyone just stared at me and whispered amongst themselves as they held up their phones and took 'discrete' pictures of me or held up their phones and looked back and forth between what I assumed was a picture of me and were frantically trying to compare me to the picture.

When I had gotten to class and taken my seat people were still whispering and looking at me. Even Yachi who normally would chirp her good morning greetings was acting weird. Instead of greeting me she shied her gaze away from me with bright flushed cheeks.

The only person who had said anything to me was Mirai and even then as she only greeted me so she could excitedly show me an article she had bookmarked on her phone with my picture- me looking comically horrified and Oikawa with his arms wrapped around me fondly.

It wasn't titled _'Michelle Mina Hashimoto- former professional volleyball player for the U.S.A junior division spotted in inter-high preliminary tournament in Miyagi Japan having her face stroked by a painfully attractive young man'_ but it was awfully close.

"Times up, pencils down, please pass you papers up." Mr. Nakahara announced pulling me out of my thoughts.

Looking down at my paper I couldn't help but grimace. I hadn't solved a single damn problem on the paper. I mean sure, I probably could have just jotted down all the answers but even I knew that without showing the proper work Mr. Nakahara wouldn't give me the marks- he was a hard marker after all.

After passing the papers up, the bell finally rang signaling the beginning of lunch.

Unfortunately for me, I hadn't been able to prepare a lunch this morning, after all I had been planning to stay home anyway.

"I guess I'll just get something from the cafeteria," I sighed to myself.

Pushing myself away from my desk, I ignored the stares from my classmates and made my way out the door.

"Hey Mina wait up!"

Turning around, I saw Mirai rushing out of the classroom and dragging a red face Yachi by the arm towards me.

Raising my brow and crossing my arms, I couldn't stop myself from frowning at them, "Eh?"

Stopping in front of me, Mirai dropped Yachi's arm and poked the girl in the side, "say something!"

"Uh, um, uh, M-Mina-sama uh I'm sorry a-about Saturday?" Yachi stuttered nervously and unsurely while avoiding eye contact with me.

Frowning harder I let out a huff, "First of all don't call me Mina-sama, second of all why are you stuttering and third of all why are you avoiding eye contact with me?"

Letting out a squeak, Yachi looked over at Mirai helplessly almost as if she would cry while making incoherent sounds,

Patting the blonde on the head, Mirai looked over at me, "Oi, Mina, don't you think you are being mean? All she was trying to do was apologize,"

"Apologize for what?" I shot back growing annoyed, "she didn't do anything!"

"But why didn't you reply to my messages?" Yachi wailed looking at me with a hurt look, "I messaged you after you ran away and on Sunday and you never replied back!"

"Same for me," Mirai added looking at me accusingly,

Crossing my arms tighter across my chest I pouted, "I turned my phone off and threw it somewhere in my room,"

"Oh," Yachi said blinking at me, "so…you are not mad at me?"

"I am now," I huffed childishly, "you are acting all strange today just like everybody else!"

"Ah I'm sorry about that!" Yachi replied taking a step towards me, "It's just…it's just after finding out that you are such a big and important person I felt a little self-conscious. I mean…I just felt like I was bothering you or taking up you time when you probably have other people who are just as important as you to hang out with…" Trailing off, tears started to gather in her eyes,

"Eh, don't cry. I should be the one saying I'm sorry," I said de-puffing my chest, "I shouldn't have been so short tempered with you a minute ago and…I should have told you sooner, I was just afraid that people would spread my secret around…and…I'm sorry, I should have trusted you,"

"That's so cute!" Mirai cooed clapping her hands, "now hug and make-up!"

Smiling sheepishly, I took a step forward and gathered Yachi into a hug.

"Now don't let me catch you two fighting ever again!" Mirai threatened wagging her finger at both of us causing us to sweat drop,

"Heh, we won't fight," Yachi assured, "but Mirai-chan, why weren't you surprised about Mina-chan's secret?"

Throwing her hands behind her had, Mirai closed her eyes and shrugged, "I already knew, it's really not a big deal,"

Blinking rapidly, Yachi tilted her head, "huh?"

Laughing a bit, I looped arms with Yachi and pulled her alongside me and started walking, "what she's trying to say is that she totally went into fan-girl mode when she first recognized me!"

"Lies!" Mirai cried pointing at me, "I did no such thing!"

Rolling my eyes and smirking, I poked Yachi, "when she first approached me I was terrified when she started rattling off my life facts! Ya, I thought I had a stalker!"

Covering her mouth and giggling, Yachi shot a side long look to Mirai, "I think I believe Mina-chan more than you Mirai-chan,"

Squawking angrily at our teasing, Mirai opened her mouth to say something but stopped when a familiar voice caught our attention,

"Hey wait up you guys!"

Turning around, we all blinked in surprised.

"Michimiya-san?" I asked once she had caught up to us,

"H-hey," she panted back, "I was trying to get you attention for awhile now!"

"Sorry Michimiya-san," Yachi apologized, "we were just heading to the cafeteria to grab some snacks, do you want to come with us?"

Shrugging one shoulder, Michimiya smiled, "sure, I wanted to talk to you guys for a minute."

Walking together towards the cafeteria I suddenly decided to break the somewhat awkward silence, "eh, so what did you want to talk about?"

Blushing slightly, Michimiya scratched the back of her head sheepishly, "well I was just wondering if you three were still interested in joining the volleyball club…"

"Oh crap! I almost forgot!" Mirai said snapping her fingers, "but since you reminded me you can definitely count me in!"

"Eh? Can you even play volleyball?" Yachi questioned shooting Mirai a skeptical look,

Puffing her chest, Mirai thumped her cockily, "well I don't want to brag or anything but I do have some pretty neat tricks!"

"Hmm," Yachi hummed with a small smirk, turning to Michimiya she grinned, "well if you don't mind the fact that I've never played before you can count me in too."

Clapping her hands together, Michimiya's eyes twinkled happily, "thank you so much!"

"What about you?" Mirai asked suddenly looking at me,

"Ya, I'm sure Mina wouldn't want to join the club considering the fact that she's played real professional matches before," Michimiya blurted looking flustered,

Giving her a half crooked smile, I shrugged, "but didn't you say if you won your match I had to join?"

Waving out her hands in front of her as if she was embarrassed, Michimiya scrunched her brows together, "but that was before I found out who you were! I don't want to be bothering you with these little matches!"

There it was again, the _'I-don't-want-to-bother-you'_ speech.

Inhaling deeply, I urged myself to not get angry before leveling my gaze with Michimiya, "well since you won the bet I'm joining the team."

"Are you sure?"

"Mhm,"

Grinning a face-splitting grin, Michimiya gave out a cute little cheer, "thank you so much! I know this might be a little too soon but we have our first game together this Saturday and since my teammates quit I had to scramble quickly and get enough girls,"

"Well I know an official club needs at least five members and since you have us three including yourself have you found any other members?" Mirai asked raising an eyebrow,

"Eh…about that," Michimiya started with a blush, "one of the girls on the team agreed to rejoin but I'm kind of having trouble finding one other members and besides even if we did find one more person to join we technically need six people to compete on Saturday."

"Then I guess we have no choice but to help you find two members right Mina?" Mirai responded crossing her arms,

Nodding my head I looked at Michimiya, "we'll help you find some members! Between the three of us I think we can handle find two more members for the club."

Letting out a tiny sniff, Michimiya stared at the three of us with her hands clasped in front of her, "you guys would really do that for me?"

"Of course," Yachi answered, "it's clear that this is really important to you and as fellow volleyball club members it's also our responsibility to help out and find some members,"

"Preferably some that can actually play!" Mirai chimed,

Laughing slightly, I nodded, "mhm, true so I guess the three of us can look for some potential members in our class and in the cafeteria while you can try and see if any of the other girls on the team would like to rejoin,"

Nodding to the plan, Michimiya agreed and waved goodbye as she eagerly went off to find her old teammates.

For the remainder of the lunch the three of us asked around to see if anyone would be interested in joining the club.

As expected, everyone we approached kindly declined us. It was completely understandable though, I mean what we were asking seemed crazy and impossible- after all we were asking these random girls to drop everything they were doing and join a club that was already scheduled to play a professional match on Saturday right at the end of the semester.

By the time lunch and our P.E class started had ended we were all silently panicking. By the way our campaign was going it looked like we wouldn't be able to find one member let alone two.

While Yachi and Mirai seemed more focused on finding at least one more member, I was completely flustered.

In fact, I was so flustered at the thought of letting Michimiya down that I had without even realizing kicked the soccer ball we had been using in gym directly in smack dab in the middle of some poor girl's face.

"Oh my goodness!" I exclaimed horrified as I watched the girl I had just kicked fall backwards clutching her nose.

Blowing the whistle, our gym teacher rushed over to the girl while other students gathered around,

Feeling horrible, I rushed forward and dropped to my knees next to the girl and helped her sit up, "I'm so sorry are you ok?!"

Pulling her hand away from her nose, the girl peered up at me from behind her silver rimmed circle glass with her dark violet eyes and revealed a bloody nose, "I'm fine." She replied in a completely monotone voice.

 _Fine…are you sure about that?_ I thought skeptically as I watched her pinch her nose again.

Not even seeming bothered by the amount of blood rushing out from her nose, the girl looked over at the gym teacher, "May I please go to the nurse office?"

"I'll go with her!" I added quickly,

"Uh s-sure," the teacher replied.

Helping the girl up, I lightly gripped the girl's elbow and guided her off the field.

For a few moments we walked in completely silence. I debated apologizing again but felt too awkward to say anything,

"Thank you." The girl finally said breaking the awkward silence.

"Please don't thank me; I'm the reason why you're bleeding. I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention, I'm really sorry!" I babbled feeling relieved that she had said something first.

"Hn," the girl grunted, "I'm thanking you for getting me out of gym, I didn't want to be there. No one was passing me the ball anyway."

 _Eh…what?_

Tensing up, I shot a side long look at the stoic girl.

Masking a gasp behind a light cough, I found myself truly surprised when I looked at her. I don't know how I missed it but looking at her now I was completely caught off guard by her bright red curly hair. It was about shoulder's length and framed her face messily.

Studying her further I felt myself getting more and more creeped out.

How could I have not noticed someone like her? I mean for heaven sakes she had the brightest and curliest red hair I had ever seen- it was practically giant flashing beacon screaming ' _hey look at me! Look at me!_ ' obnoxiously loud.

Frowning slightly as we walked together silently I only found myself becoming even more creeped out and confused.

"I'm Izumi Shimizu,"

 _Shimizu? Why did that sound so familiar?_

"You might already know this but I'm Kiyoko Shimizu's younger sister."

"Ah!" I said, the name finally clicking, "isn't she the manager of the boy's volleyball club? I didn't know she had a younger sister,"

"No one really does, not like it matters." Izumi shrugged,

"I mean, what I'm trying to say is that I wouldn't guess _you_ were her younger sister because…" I trailed off looking for the correct way to phrase what I wanted to say,

"Because I look nothing like her?" Izumi finished with an empty smile.

Grimacing at her rather chilly look, I shook my head, "No- I mean yes but not in a bad way. I mean you have such bright red hair and it's so curly! It's just so different from her!"

"You mean from her perfect silky black straight her?" Izumi scowled, "I know."

 _I think I've hit a sensitive nerve there._ I thought sweat dropping,

"Well sure it's different but not in a bad way, I mean I hope I don't sound rude or anything but your hair color is insane!"

"Insane?" she echoed sounding a little skeptical,

Nodding eagerly I grinned, "Yeah! In a good way of course, I wish I had you hair color, it's so bright and cool while I just have plain old brown hair,"

Not replying for a minute I thought I had hit another nerve.

"T-thank you." She finally said in her monotone voice.

Laughing slightly at her I nudged her, "you sound a little unsure there,"

Scowling slightly she merely huffed,

"Oh, I forgot to mention I'm Mina Hashimoto!"

"The new girl who happens to be an Olympic volleyball champion, yeah I know who you are, I've heard the rumors."

Gasping dramatically I froze in mid-step, "w-what rumors?"

Stopping and shooting me an over the shoulder look she shrugged, "just rumors, I didn't really listen to them but I already knew about you before the rumors started circulating."

 _Great now there's rumors? No wonder everyone is treating me like the main attraction of some zoo._

"Don't let that bother you though," Izumi said starting to walk again.

Jogging up alongside her I studied her for a moment.

I only met Kiyoko briefly at the tournament on Saturday but even from that brief encounter I had to admit that they looked really different. But what really left me confused was the fact that despite having bright flashy red hair, Izumi had little next to no presence around her. In fact, despite being in the same gym class this was probably the first time I've ever seen her.

"Hey Izumi-san, what class are you in?"

"1-4." She replied curtly.

"Mhm," I hummed,

"You are probably wondering why you've never notice before."

"Can you read minds?!" I asked taking a step back,

"Hn, no I can't but it's pretty obvious that's what you are thinking."

"Well…okay, yes I'm sorry…I just can't believe I haven't noticed you before!"

Shrugging as if it was no big deal she sighed, "Don't apologize, no one really notices me anyone. Besides I'm technically supposed to be second year anyway."

"Huh?"

"During my first year here I came down with some illness, it left me bed ridden for a whole year. Luckily the school allowed me to finish up my first year as a home schooled student and I passed…but after coming back I realized that I missed so much and starting off high school as a second year when everyone had already established their cliques would be hard so I thought m-maybe I could redo my first year and start over again…"

Blinking I couldn't help but think that was probably the most I've heard her said since meeting her.

Almost as if she had realized that too, Izumi suddenly blushed and turned her head away, "s-sorry, I've said too much."

Chuckling I grinned, "no that's fine, I was just surprised. You don't seem like you like to talk much,"

"Not really and even if I did who would I even talk to? No one even notices me. I'm just a nobody- even with this bright red hair."

"Well you could start with me," I said with a small smile, "I mean if you don't mind talking to the girl who literally kicked a soccer ball and probably broke your nose."

Glancing at me, Izumi cracked a small smirk, "Eh, I guess I won't hold it against you…but what were you even thinking about that distracted you so much?"

Scratching the back of my head, I pouted, "well it's kind of a long story but the short version is that I was trying to figure out how I can get a girl to join the girls' volleyball club."

"Volleyball club?"

"Yeah, we are looking for two more members to join so we can participate in this match on Saturday…wait…this might sound a little crazy but do you want to join?!"

Looking at me as if I had just sprouted another head, Izumi pointed at herself, "me?"

"Mhm! I mean only if you want to!"

"I-I guess-"

"Yes!" I cheered interrupting her mid sentence.

Stopping mid-cheer when the final bell went off I gasped,

"Crap, I totally forgot that I had to get you to the nurse office! C'mon let's go!"

Dodging my hand when I tried to grab her arm, Izumi frowned, "I don't need to go to the nurse office,"

"Are you sure?"

"Hn, my nose has stopped bleeding so I'm fine."

Staring at her for a moment, I jerked my thumb over my shoulder, "so…do you want to come to the club with me?"

"Now?

"…I guess." She replied with a skeptical look.

Smiling widely, I gripped her elbow much to her protest and jogged over to the girl's club room.

"Hey guys! I found a new member!" I panted when I rushed into the club room.

Turning around from one another, Michimiya let out a loud wail,

"What did you do Mina!? Did you punch her and _threaten_ her to join!?"

"Kind of," Mirai laughed, "she accidentally hit her with a soccer ball."

"I thought you guys were going to the nurse office," Yachi said with a concerned look,

Looking away, Izumi huffed, "I'm fine."

"She's fine!" I repeated, "besides didn't any of you hear me say we have a new member? This is Izumi"

"Oh we did," a girl who I recognized as the one being the one who had dropped all the serves at the tournament chirped, "I'm Kimi by the way,"

Shooting my own greeting, I was quickly drowned out as all the girls except Izumi started chatting.

"Hey listen up!" Michimiya yelled instantly drawing all our attention to her, "I just wanted to say that's it's great that we've got another member but we still need one more to participate on Saturday,"

"And we already got a bunch of no thanks for the former team," Kimi informed pouting with her hands on her hips,

"I know someone." Izumi said cryptically.

"Well are you going to tell us?" Mirai asked,

Shrugging her shoulders, Izumi closed her eyes, "she's a second year, Hitomi Moshi, she's suspended this week but I can probably get a hold of her tonight and explain our situation. She plays volleyball and she owes me a favor so I'm sure she'll join the team."

Looking impressed, Michimiya grinned, "then if you can get her to join that means we are officially a team. By the way do you play?"

"I'm not a professional or anything but I'm pretty good defensive wise."

"Thank god," Mirai exclaimed causing Yachi to sweat drop, "we can't have half of us being totally useless!"

"Eh, Michimiya-san what about the rest of us who can't play?" Yachi piped looking a little nervous,

"Don't you think we need a coach?" Kimi suggested looking over to Michimiya as well.

"About that I think I might know someone who could coach us on such short notice," I interjected.

Before anyone could even ask me who I had in mind, a very annoying and familiar voice drew all our attention.

"Oi, Mina where are you?!"

"Eh who's that?" Kimi asked me with a brow raised,

Throwing a hand over my face, I sighed, "looks like our coach here…"

Almost as if she had heard my voice, my older sister Emi popped her head into the gym and stared at us,

"…Am I interrupting something?"

* * *

 _A/N: First of all let me just apologize for taking so long to post this chapter. It normally takes me two days to write up a chapter and I have sheets and sheets of papers with future chapters planned out that way I won't get stuck on a chapter. The only reason why it took me so long is that some distressing news came up on Monday which left me feeling all bleck. Anyway, I also want to sincerely thank **les printemps** for taking the time to leave a review. I know it can be a pain to leave a review or have authors hound you for a review but c'mon who doesn't like reviews? Once again thank you so much for your review it meant a lot to me!_

 _Okay before I end up writing a whole other story in my A/N I just want to say I will be hopefully posting another chapter sometime this week so look out for that! Thanks again for the support and I hope you enjoyed this chapter and (cough, cough) leave a review :D_


	7. Chapter 7

"Let me get this straight, _you_ want _me_ to become a coach for _your_ volleyball club just so you guys can go compete in Saturday's match?" Emi said once I had finished explaining our situation to her.

Nodding my head eagerly, I clasped my hands together and gave her my best puppy eye look, "so does this mean you will coach us?"

"Nope," Emi replied scratching the inside of her right ear with her pinky with a bored look, "don't want to."

" _Eh_?!" I screeched angrily along with the other girls, "why not?!" we chorused in unison.

"Well," Emi started peering down at her pinky and flicking a piece of imaginary earwax away she shrugged, "it just sounds like a lot of work, besides unlike the rest of you _I_ actually have a day job."

Folding my arms and scoffing, I narrowed my eyes, "Job?" I echoed mockingly, " _what_ job? You only go down to the beauty parlor about once a week! You and I both know you don't even work,"

Flushing red and narrowing her eyes back at me, Emi pointed at me, "then how do I pay the bills huh? _Huh_?"

"With the money your damn fan-boys send you every week!" I shot back pointing at her.

It was true, Emi barely actually worked. Apart from the random times she felt the urge to work, Emi never really worked- in fact from the few times I had caught a glimpse of her paystub I learned that she would only be paid for a day worth of work.

And after more snooping into my lazy, older sister's life I had learned that the large amount of money that she would normally stumble upon and pay the bills with came from her multitude of fan-boys who would give her random gifts- often in the form of money.

It was the pain of being beautiful Emi had once told me in some poor attempt to seem distraught over all the gifts she was receiving despite eagerly tearing into an envelope and rubbing a handle of fifties across her face with a deranged smile.

"Hmm," Emi hummed looking a little sheepish, "well the answer is still no."

"Why not?!" I whined stomping my foot, "you're not busy and we _need_ a coach!"

"Well I can't coach a team with unstylish people," Emi answered tossing a lock of her long brown hair over the shoulder and pointing lazily at the girls behind me, "I mean short girl with the star clips in her hair looks okay but that's about it,"

"Uh are we getting insulted by our coach?" Kimi asked looking a little annoyed,

"Uh-huh!" Mirai said with stars in her eyes, clearly overwhelmed by her inner fan-girl.

Sighing loudly, I gritted my teeth, "If I let you do my makeup for a week will you be our coach?"

Cupping her ear and grinning a big wide shit-eating grin, Emi leaned forwards, "s'excuse me, can you say that again?" she taunted in English,

Swallowing the urge to snap at her, I balled my fist at my side and narrowed my eyes, "I said…if I let you do my makeup for a week will you be our coach?"

Letting out a loud decisive grunt and crossing her arms over her chest, Emi smirked over at the girls, "looks like you guys just got yourself a new coach!"

Letting out a chorus of confused and half hearted cheers, the girls all looked at one another before Izumi returned her gaze to my older sister and narrowed her eyes, " _who_ exactly are you?"

"Don't ask-" I started to say only to be cut off my Emi throwing back her head with her hands on her hips and letting out a loud and obnoxious laugh,

"Open up your eyes ladies for you are looking at perhaps the only true glimpse of perfection you will ever see! Behold you puny, worthless high school brats and feast your eyes on the one and only Emi _you-wish-you-were-me_ Hashimoto!"

Face planting my face into my hand, everyone else merely sweats dropped while Mirai let out a loud whoop and clapped furiously.

"Ya, did she just call us _worthless_?" Kimi snapped,

"I think she also called us puny…" Izumi added glaring at Emi,

"Uh…Mina, who exactly is she?" Michimiya asked shooting me concerned looked.

Sighing, I jerked a thumb at my older sister, "that's my older sister Emi," turning to her I raised a brow, "eh, and why exactly are you here?"

"Well," Emi said digging into purse, "I was heading to the parlor when one of my co-works sent me this article and asked me if I had a little sister,"

Holding up the phone, the girls and I gathered around and peered at Emi's dimly lit I-phone screen.

"Ya, why is Aobajosai's volleyball captain stroking your _face_?" Kimi giggled shooting me a Cheshire worthy grin,

Ripping the phone out of Emi's grasp, I let out a loud wail, "why is this even on the internet!"

"I don't know," Emi shrugged, "but after realizing that you weren't over reacting this morning I stopped by to see if you wanted me to walk you home or anything, y'know in case you were mobbed by your fans,"

"Eh? What fans?" Kimi questioned raising a jet black eyebrow at me,

"You haven't heard?" Yachi asked looking surprised,

"Apparently Mina's some volleyball star," Izumi explained with a one shoulder shrug, "or at least that's what I've read,"

Letting out a low whistle, Kimi looked back at Emi and pointed at her, "so does that make you some double volleyball star or something?"

Opening my mouth to answer, Mirai quickly interrupted, "how can you be so ignorant," scoffing Mirai gestured towards Emi as if she was presenting us with a shiny new car, "That's Emi Hashimoto, the second daughter of Daisuke and Helena Hashimoto. She's 181.1 cm and weighs-"

"You can skip that part!" Emi shrilled,

"She only played volleyball for her junior international division for 6 months before retiring once doctors diagnosed her with the same mysterious illness that Helena Hashimoto had. However, before retiring she was named in American Sport's monthly as being the second best libero in the U.S. Her favorite foods are-"

"No one cares!" I exclaimed in an exasperated tone earning me a fierce glare from Mirai.

"Whoa, impressive," Kimi mumbled looking at Emi in awe and new found respect,

Scratching the side of her nose in a piss poor attempt to look humble, Emi grinned, "eh, it's not _that_ impressive,"

"Are you kidding?! That's incredibly impressive!" Mirai argued sounding like a proud mother hen,

"Well if you put it like that then you're right," Emi nodded looking smug.

"But how are you as a coach?" Michimiya asked boldly,

Smirking and tapping the side of her head, Emi closed her eyes, "well what American Sport's monthly forgot to mention was that I have my father's keen analytically eye. Not only am I able to easily assess the potential of different players accurately but I'm also pretty spot on being able to train players in their own respective strengths."

Pouting and crossing my arms, I nodded, "it's true. Emi actually worked with my division during the 2013 junior preliminary matches and actually improved the rate of success of our receives which was a weak point for us from 89.6% to 99.9% within a few weeks."

"We are going to kick so many butts next week," Mirai squealed trying to contain her excitement.

"Well ladies," Michimiya said placing her hands on her hips and looking at us "looks like we got some serious training to do."

"Hold on," Emi interjected giving us all an uncharacteristically serious look, "before you guys even get started training I need to review some of your tapes."

"Tapes?" Yachi repeated a little nervously, "uh, we don't exactly have tapes…"

"We all just joined the team." Izumi said bluntly.

Frowning at us, Emi huffed, "then how did you guys expect me to train you?"

"I was kind of thinking by jumping straight into the woosh and the pow stuff!" Mirai bubbled making a spiking motion with her hands, "ohhh, can you teach us how to do a double whamy pow whoosh move?"

Running a hand down her face and letting out an exasperated groan, Emi shook her head, "then you guys are going to have to play a _real_ match so I can see what I'm working with."

"I don't think we have enough players for a match," Michimiya pointed out,

"Isn't there anyone else you guys can play against?" Emi asked,

"Well the boys are probably practicing right now…maybe we could go ask them?" Kimi suggested.

Squawking in horror along-side Yachi, I pounced on Emi, "n-no we can play a three on three no problem!"

"She's right! We don't need to go!" Yachi added, probably dreading the thought of embarrassing herself in front of Hinata.

"Nonsense," Emi scoffed puffing her chest, "lead me to the boys' club!"

Completely ignoring our yells of protest, Michimiya, Kimi, Izumi and Mirai guided Emi towards the boy's gym.

Not even bothering to politely knock or even try to see if it was okay to interrupt practice, Emi literally kicked the doors open and marched inside.

"Oi, you brats where's your coach?"

Staring wide eye and dumb founded at my sister, Tanaka, Nishinoya and Hinata wordlessly gestured towards coach Ukai who was shooting a _'who the hell are you?'_ look at my sister from the sidelines.

Once again, tossing all forms of basic human etiquette out the window, Emi marched right up to the much taller man, planted the feet firmly on the ground and pointed at him, "fight me."

"Eh…what?" coach Ukai drawled looking at Emi skeptically,

"I said _fight me._ " She repeated smirking, "unless you're scared."

"What is she doing?" Yachi whispered to me fearfully,

"Apparently trying to get into a school yard rumble," I mumbled back.

Pushing down her out stretched hand with his pointer finger, coach Ukai sneered down at Emi, "who said I'm scared? I just don't fight girls."

"Ha!" Emi bellowed mockingly, "I wasn't talking about fighting me, I was talking about _them_!"

"What is she doing!?" Kimi exclaimed looking panicked, "why is she trying to get a grown man to _fight_ us?!"

"What's going on?" Suga asked walking towards his coach with Daichi and Ashai following.

"I think she wants us to fight her?" Hinata said confused, while Nishinoya and Tanaka eagerly formed fists.

"Uh what I think she's trying to say is that she wants you guys to play a match against the girls' volleyball," Michimiya giggled nervously, "that is if you guys have time,"

Perking up instantly, Hinata jumped up, "cool! Can we play against them?"

"Do you think you can handle them?" Emi taunted, wiggling her brow in a provoking manner.

Vein protruding from the side of his head, Ukai looked over at the boys, "go put on the orange jersey, we're playing one set against the girls."

"You better be good, you guys are playing her after all!" Emi sassed with a smirk,

"…blondie?" Coach Ukai asked looking skeptically at a trembling Yachi,

"The one standing _next_ to blondie!"

"Mina-sama!?" Hinata, Nishinoya, Tanaka and Kageyama yelled in unison.

Waving my hands out in front of me, I blushed furiously, "don't call me that!"

Attempting to rush forward, Daichi quickly grabbed the back of Kageyama's collar and held him back.

Not being fazed by that, Kageyama stared at me with an intense look and pointed at me.

"What is this? Amone Jr.?" Mirai scoffed,

"Stop pointing at her!" Suga cried, trying but failing to lower Kageyama's hand.

Sweat dropping at this, I followed the girls to the other side of the net.

"Okay listen you brats," Emi hollered drawing all our attention, "you guys are going to be playing a friendly one set match. I need to assess the girls' team to see how well the girls can play so don't even think about going easy on them just because they are girls."

"I had no intentions on that." Tsukishimia said in taunting tone while pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose,

"Tsukki!" Yamaguchi yelled horrified in the blonde's coldness,

"Neither did I." Kageyama said in a dark manner.

"…w-we're going to die…" Yachi whimpered causing the girls to sweat drop.

"Ya, don't panic Yachi," Michimiya said in a soothing tone, "this is just a friendly match," Tossing the ball towards the trembling blonde, Michimiya jerked her head and gestured to the side, "why don't you serve the first ball so you can loosen up?"

Squawking in surprise, Yachi managed to catch the ball, "I-I, d-don't t-think I c-can do t-that!"

"Don't over think it, just hit the ball over the net," Mirai retorted taking her place at the front of the net eagerly.

Standing slightly in front of Yachi, I shot a small smile over my shoulder, "Mirai's right, just hit the the ball- nothing to worry about!"

Nodding, Yachi took a deep breath and gazed across the court.

Sucking in another deep breath of air and tossed the ball up.

Raising her hand up, Yachi focused on the ball intently and swung her arm in a wide arc and-

"What the _hell_ was that?!" Emi yelled angrily,

"One point for the boys," Kikoyo called, flipping the point chart for the boys to one.

"I-I'm sorry," Yachi sniffed teary eyes looking at me.

"It's okay," I replied softly and sweat-dropping before glaring at Emi, "Oi, what kind of coach yells _that_?!"

"An angry one!" Emi shot back, "try again blondie!"

Nodding with a determined look and a sniff, Yachi grabbed the ball again. Mimicking her first stance, Yachi tossed the ball up, swung her arms in a wide arc and-

"One point for the boys."

"Boo!" Emi jeered, "get off the court!"

Face planting my face against my hand, I gestured Yachi to switch places with me.

Shooting a glare at Emi, I returned my gaze to the game. Even though this was just a friendly match I had no intention of losing and after giving two free points to the boys I intended on earning them back.

Spinning the ball between my palms and bouncing it against the floor, I studied the boys positioning.

Tanaka, Nishinoya and Daichi were all lined up in the back while Kageyama, Hinata and Tsukki were lined up in the front.

Spinning the ball once more I smirked.

"I hope I still remember how to do this," I muttered under my breath.

Tossing the ball up into the air, I arched slightly backwards and raised my right hand towards the ball. At the very last minute I switched my open palm strike and only allowed my index finger to strike the ball.

 _Smack!_

The ball whizzed quickly over the net and straight towards Nishinoya,

"Heh, I got this!" Nishinoya yelled smirking and preparing to receive the ball.

However, just the ball dipped towards him the ball suddenly took an unexpected sharp right turn and caught Daichi completely off guard.

Letting out a surprise grunt, the boy's captain tried and failed to receive the ball,

"Hell ya! Crush them!" Emi hollered from the side lines.

"One point, girls." Kikoyo called.

"W-what was that?!" Hinata gasped whipping his head back at me,

Smirking, I shrugged, "watch again and you might see."

Tossing up the ball once again, I swung my arm this time used my middle finger to hit the ball.

Once again the ball sailed directly towards Nishinoya and unlike last time, Daichi crouched lower and gritted his teeth preparing for the ball to make a sharp turn towards him.

But instead, without warning the ball made a sharp turn and caught Tanaka off guard and bounced merely a cm away from his foot.

"One point girls."

"How did she do that?!" Tanaka yelled frustrated but in awe,

"Whoa…you were joking when you said she was some volleyball star," Kimi grinned flashing me two thumbs up.

"That was even cooler up close!" Mirai cheered,

"Focus boys!" Coach Ukai instructed when I had picked up the ball.

"You're all probably wondering how Mina did that," Emi said smirking smugly, "well-"

"Ya!" I huffed angrily whipping my head towards Emi, "don't blab my secret!"

"It's all in the hands," Emi continued ignoring me completely, "this is a technique our mom taught us but only Mina mastered. Instead of striking the ball with the base of your palm this move focuses on allowing the server to have total control over the direction of the ball by using only one finger to propel the ball."

"And there goes a family secret," I sighed serving the ball.

Just sailed over the net, Nishinoya eyes widen realizing my intentions, "Tanaka it's coming towards you!"

Looking surprised but listening to the short libero, Tanaka effortlessly received the ball and popped it into the air,

"Kageyama!" Hinata cried rushing towards the far left side of the net.

Not even bothering to respond, Kageyama tossed the ball to Hinata into what clearly appeared to be their freak quick,

 _Bam!_

"One point, girls."

"What?!" The boys chorused together completely flabbergasted when the freak quick was shut down.

"W-what happened?" Yachi asked looking around a little confused.

"Interesting," Emi said causing everyone to look over at her, "so no one noticed red-head over there block the quick?"

Instantly whipping our heads towards Izumi we all let out our own surprised sounds.

"When did _she_ come on the court?" Suga and Yamaguchi gasped from the sidelines.

Adjusting her glasses as she landed lightly on her feet, Izumi looked completely unfazed by the fact that everyone- including her own team members hadn't realized she was on the court.

 _Hm, it looks like Izumi uses her lack of presence alongside her teammates own moves to increase the success of her blocks._ I thought smirking to myself in awe.

"It seems like despite her appearance her lack of presence causes our attention to be drawn towards the other players and just when we see an opening she shuts it down." Tsukki explained coolly while staring intently at Izumi.

"Exactly," Emi confirmed with a firm nod of head.

"That's incredible!" Hinata gushed looking totally impressed, "hey, what's your name?!"

"Izumi Shimizu."

"Shimizu?!" Everyone except Emi and myself hollered,

"Wait Kiyoko, are you two _related_?" Tanaka asked looking back and forth frantically between the two girls.

"Mhm, she's my younger sister." Kiyoko answered, turning towards her younger sister she tilted her head, "I didn't know you had joined the team,"

"Hn." Izumi grunted not even bothering to look at her older sister.

Sweat-dropping at her coldness, I looked over towards the boys, "looks like this is going t be a pretty interesting match."

For the next twenty minutes the gym was filled was silence which was only broken with the sound of our shoes squeaking against the gym floor and the smacks of the ball being propelled across the court.

Surprisingly, during the entire match Emi hadn't made another comment. Instead, from the few times I managed to sneak a look at her it appeared that Emi was closely analyzing our game play as well as skills.

"One point, boys. Set over, boys win." Ukai called smugly as Kiyoko switched the point board.

"Damn it!" Mirai growled kneeling up from the floor, "I dove too late!"

"Heh, don't worry about that," Kimi panted throwing her hands on her hips, "I honestly wasn't expecting you to be _that_ good,"

"Not to be rude or anything but I have to agree with Kimi-san, where did you learn to do all that?" Yachi asked looking over at Mirai who was now blushing,

"Heh, well I kind of just like watching matches and trying to mimic the liberos moves…"

"Well all I can say was that your moves were completely unexpected," Michimiya grinned, "which is definitely a good thing since our team needs a libero."

Watching silently, I had to agree with them. During the match, we had all been truly taken aback by Mirai seemly innate ability to save nearly each and every ball that the boys had spiked our way.

"Hey you!" Nishinoya yelled running up to Mirai, "your moves were insane! Where did you learn them from?"

Scratching the back of her head sheepishly, Mirai sweat-dropped, "eh, I didn't-"

"Wait a minute," he interrupted looking at her suspiciously, "you look really familiar…"

"Eh, didn't we meet last Saturday?" Mirai asked darting her eyes around while pulling the collar of her gym shirt nervously.

"Yes but I mean you look really, _really_ familiar,"

"Oi, stop flirting with the girls and get back to practice," coach Ukai snapped pointing towards the area where the rest of the team were,

Backing up slowly, Nishinoya continued to study Mirai before finally turning around and jogging back to his teammates.

"Hn, one of your saves looks awfully familiar to Nishinoya-san's rolling thunder move." Izumi said looking over at Mirai intently.

"E-eh, really? I didn't notice," Mirai replied, her voice raising three octaves.

"Now that you mention it…it kind of does," Michimiya agreed earning a firm nod firm from Kimi.

Stifling a laugh behind my hand, I tried to fight off the urge to point out that when Mirai said that she had learned her moves from watching others what she really meant was that she was faithfully stalking Karasuno's boys' volleyball club and picking up movies from their libero.

"Well ladies, I can't say you are awful," Emi said strolling up to us,

"Thanks-" Michimiya started to say but stopped when Emi signaled her that she wasn't done talking,

"But you guys are pretty close to awful."

"Okay, am I the only one who thinks that she's totally insulting us?" Kimi exclaimed.

"Don't take this the wrong way," Emi continued ignoring Kimi, "but you guys don't exactly have a very smooth game play between all of you. Sure, there are a few of you who have played together and have a good rhythm going on but other than that none of you really connected with one another out there which is affecting your ability to play at your full potential,"

"Well yeah that's obvious. Even with Mina here we lost," Mirai said looking confused, "we just formed our team today."

"That's my point. I don't think you guys can expect to win your match this Saturday playing the way you did today." Emi shot back, "and you guys can't expect that having Mina will ensure you a victory either. You are _all_ equally important out there on the court. Whether you win or lose doesn't depend on the fact that you have a professional player but instead your own individual skills and strength.

"She has a point…" Yachi mumbled quietly,

"But that's why you're here right?" Michimiya asked, "you are going to help us work more efficiently as a team and not depend solely on Mina right?"

Shrugging, Emi closed her eyes and scratched the back of her head, "I guess but I honestly think it's going to take more than a week to help you with that…"

"Then I guess all we have to do is win on Saturday so you can properly prepare us for the rest of the tournament." Izumi said coolly causing the other girls to grin widely.

Raising a brow at Izumi and smirking, Emi nodded, "I guess that's true. So I guess the game plan for this week is practice every day after school for three hours- longer if you all are willing to put in the extra hours. We will be brushing up on some basic forms and moves that you all need to master before Saturday."

"Hai!" We all exclaimed together causing Emi to smirk even more.

"Well then, you are all dismissed. And remember I'm not going to go easy on any of you just because some of you are newbies. Just so you know, I intend to win which means that I need to whip you all into tip top shape, do you understand?"

Facing the girls for a moment, I exchanged glances with everyone and confirmed that we were all thinking the exact same thing.

Facing my older sister with my arms crossed, I shot her a smirk of my own, "heh, don't worry we intend to win too.

* * *

 _A/N: Hey, sorry it took so long to update. I started this chapter on Monday but got side tracked with some other stuff. Anyway, I was really looking forward to dive into Mina's past in this chapter and even make their interactions with the boys longer but I decided against it and thought I would do that in the next chapter. Also, I'm starting to notice that I tend to finish up chapters on Fridays...so not to jinx myself or anything but maybe I'll be able to get up a chapter every Friday! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter...it might be a little slow or not enough interaction BUT I promise you all that in the future chapters there will be a lot more interactions!  
_


End file.
